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4 | SN&R | 09.12.13
Sacramento News 09-12-13.indd 1

8/14/13 1:07 PM

September 12, 2013 | vol. 25, issue 22

M

A

&

AND

SERVICES

R T S

TR AVEL

&

SPORT S

S

ARTS

It’s a bad time to be a teenage girl.
In August, a judge sentenced a
49-year-old Montana teacher to 30
days in jail for the rape of a 14-yearold student. Why? According to the
judge, the student—who committed suicide before the case went to
trial—was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control
of the situation” as the man.
Similarly, in August, a U.K. judge
levied a suspended, eight-month sentence on a man convicted of raping a
13-year-old girl because the teen was
“predatory” and “egging” him on.
Such rulings from those tasked
to protect children are stomachturning. They’re also evidence of a
pervasive, slut-shaming attitude
among those in authority.
Take, for example, the mother who
took to the Internet last week under
the guise of protecting her sons. In a
blog post titled “FYI (if you’re a teenage girl),” Kimberly Hall, director of
women’s ministry at a Texas church,
advised girls against posting provocative selfies to social-media sites:
“Did you know that once a male
sees you in a state of undress, he
can’t quickly un-see it? You don’t
want [the Hall] boys to only think of
you in this sexual way, do you?”
Incidentally, the post was accompanied by a picture of one of Hall’s
sons, posing shirtless. She’s since
tried to erase her digital hypocrisy
by removing the photos, but what’s
been seen online, of course, cannot
be unseen.
Here’s a tip, Mrs. Hall: Advise your
sons not to objectify or sexualize
girls. Teach your sons, instead, how to
respect them as equals.
It’s time for those in authority
to stop blaming teenage girls for the
ways in which boys and men perceive
and treat them. It’s the very least
we can do to protect them from
objectification, unwarranted shame
and harm.

1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815
Phone (916) 498-1234
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Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in SN&R are
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condensed form and to edit them for libel.
Advertising Policies All advertising is subject to the
newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. The advertiser
and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for
the truthful content of their advertising message.

<RXUFKRLFHIRUEHWWHU KHDOWK
UC Davis brings together the best minds in medicine, backed by the expertise of an entire
university, to advance health in everything from childhood diseases to cancer.
But good health starts with great primary care. And because we accept most major health
insurance plans, choosing UC Davis for your primary care is easier than you might think.
When it comes to your health care, the one you choose, the one you trust and the one you
see makes all the difference.
There’s only one UC Davis. Find your team at medicalcenter.ucdavis.edu

“The only way she can get [my] dad to take a shower is in preparation for, um, ‘bedroom time.’”

Asked at 20th and K streets:

When have you given or received TMI?

Margie Villero

accountant

Once, my friend’s aunt,
who is kinda crazy, told us
that she was on her period
when we were eating. That
was just awkward.

BEFORE

|

NEWS

Lindsay Cross

Dan Morales

student

|

program coordinator

Somebody told me they
were not wearing underwear
to work. That’s someone
I would not want to know
that about. And now,
everyone knows.

BEST

OF

This morning, at brunch
over waffles, I was talking
with my mom about my
dad washing his hair. She
said that the only way she
can get [my] dad to take
a shower is in preparation
for, um, “bedroom time.”
My sister and I were like,
“Whoa!”

SACRAMENTO

Madeleine Bishop

Baylee Joplin

entrepreneur

hostess

Not too often, because I’m
really open, and I have no
shame about what I’ve done.
When I hear something,
I’m like, “OK, high five on
that.” We girls talk about
stuff that guys would never
expect a bunch of females to
talk about—all the nasty shit
we’ve done.

The other night at Kbar,
I was at the bar with my
roommate. One of the guys
[there] asked us, “Since
you guys live together,
most females fall on the
same pattern for their
monthly cycle.” So, he
asked us if we have ours
together every month.
I was beet red. Completely
awkward!

AT&T’s major malfunction
Re “Public-access ghetto” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Bites, September 5):
Great article about AT&T’s marginalizing public and government broadcasters. If you look at the other cable providers in the
letter of
the week region, you will find that their offerings allow direct access to public-access television, including [digital video
recorder] functionality with good image quality. But not AT&T. What is their
major malfunction?
George Hall

Sa c ra m e nt o

Upset with Steinberg

combined wealth equals more than
the combined bottom 40 percent of
American wealth?! Needless to say,
I cannot shop Walmart.
Maxine Sunada
Loomis

Re “Steinberg’s arena assist”
by Nick Miller (SN&R News,
September 5):
Well, once again, the learned
senator is carrying the can for the
billionaire boys club. I am not
surprised at this at all, as I dodge
potholes and shopping carts piloted
by mentally ill bums. Seriously, all
the pro tem has done in a largely
government career is pose and draw
a salary. All the hoopla about job
creation—well, if the damn thing
gets built, those jobs go away and
get replaced with low-wage seasonal
jobs. How about streamlining some
legislation that benefits the majority
(us), instead of them (the 1 percent).
If it does get built as planned, the
infrastructure impact will be huge.
And the Sacramento city taxpayers
will be stuck with the bill. And
probably no fast track for them,
either.
Andrew Mattson
Sacramento

Re “SN&R overlooks Walmart’s
good deeds” by Rachel Wall
(SN&R Letters, September 5):
If Wally World is just so
wonderful, when are they going
to pay all their workers a living
wage, give all of their workers a
decent health-benefits plan, and quit
illegally firing their workers for just
wanting to unionize or for speaking
out about working conditions?
When are they going to stop hiring
from temp agencies so they can
avoid paying for benefits?
Gretchen DeKok
Carmichael

NEWS

Email your letters
to sactoletters@
newsreview.com.

Re “Feds, lawsuits and legalization” by Ngaio Bealum (The 420,
September 5):
The announcement by Attorney
General Eric Holder regarding the
Department of Justice’s stand on
Washington and Colorado’s marijuana laws is good news. However,
as long as marijuana remains a
Schedule I drug, the feds can
continue to shut down recreationalor medicinal-marijuana sources and
arrest citizens for possession and
use. The Controlled Substances
Act must be modified. We must
insist that our elected representatives concentrate their efforts on
removing marijuana from Schedule
I status.
Mary Ann Lahann
Carmichael

Single? Do you like to meet, mix, and mingle with other singles? This is what the
new ONE is all about! Starting this September, ONE will meet every Sunday at
5:30pm at Capital Christian Center. We are rebooting our group by launching the
all new 20s/30s mingle as well as the all new 40s/50s+ mingle. Each group is designed and tailored just for you. If you enjoy an energetic atmosphere, don’t miss
the all-new ONE!
With countless social events, activities, and services, we have seen new faces
every single week. Not one month has passed without ONE reaching out and connecting with hundreds of Sacramento singles.

What Was Accomplished?

In year one of ONE
• 700 new singles connected through Capital
• ONE Christmas Wish donation program – Dozens of single-parent family
wishes came true during the holiday season as we supplied gifts, groceries
and hope to many needy families.
• Glasses for Peru – Earlier this year we supported humanitarian work to South
America, giving both sight and health to the less fortunate. Through many donations, we sent over 800+ pairs of reader glasses and hundreds of diabetic
medical supplies to Catacaos, Peru.
• Dozens of social outings – With countless social events, activities, and
services, we have seen many singles develop deeper friendships and build
community.
• We have seen singles enter healthy dating relationships, as well as couples
happily getting married, through ONE. By focusing on becoming the person
that the person you are looking for, is looking for, this could be your story too.

Feds need to fix
marijuana for good

Re “SN&R overlooks Walmart’s
good deeds” by Rachel Wall
(SN&R Letters, September 5):
Letter writer Rachel Wall,
Walmart senior manager of community affairs, in her slap-down letter
of SN&R, listed some nonprofit
organizations who benefit by way
of Walmart’s largesse. Wanna bet
money that more than a few of her
fellow Walmart employees, most of
whom are poorly paid part-timers,
are grateful “clients” of some of
those nonprofits?
The state of California spends
about $32 million annually paying
for uninsured Walmart employees’
healthcare, while Walmart spends
millions on television publicrelations ads touting the promotional
and educational opportunities
afforded their employees. Will
someone tell me why we’re subsidizing six Walmart owners, whose

|

By Ryan Bunbury,
Leader of ONE Singles Ministries

Walmart workers
need fair wages

Why do we subsidize
Walmart owners?

BEFORE

THE NEW ONE

Launch Date: He Said, She Said

The fun begins on Sunday, September 8, at 5:30pm. Do not miss the series, “He
Said, She Said” with hot topics like: “The Do’s & Don’ts of Dating”, “The Birds &
The Bees – Sex and the City”, “Q & A Panel – Anything Goes” and more.
@SacNewsReview

Facebook.com/
SacNewsReview

@SacNewsReview

ONE is an advocate for positive change “body, mind,
and spirit” in Sacramento singles. If you’re single and
looking for life, laughter and love, then join the movement and experience the power of ONE!

Author of The Death
and Life of the Great
American School System,
and her newest book,
Reign of Error. She is
uniquely qualied as
a former US Assistant
Secretary of Education, a
a
distinguished historian of
of
American education and
Research Professor of
Education at New York
University to present
an unfailing view of our
educational system today
and ways to improve it.
Join us for a rare
opportunity to hear her
speak and be inspired!
Microwave Ovens | Dish Washer | New Stoves/Ovens | New Refrigerator

Tickets are $5.00 and can be purchased at 5300 Elvas Ave, Sacramento
95819. 916-452-4591. Advance copies of Reign of Error can be purchased
from The Avid Reader Bookstore. Autograph signings after the event.

Center of attention
New report slams Sacramento Convention Center for wasting tax dollars,
says city should privatize
Fielding renewed charges that it’s a money-losing
subsidy hog, the Sacramento Convention
by
Center is nonetheless seeding the ground
Raheem
for another tax-funded expansion boom.
F. Hosseini
Meanwhile, a debate ensues about whether
this big-box tourism model is withering—or
r a h eemh@
newsr eview.c om
needs to get even bigger to survive.
“The convention center is an economic
driver,” says general manager Judith
M. Goldbar, paging through a new report
that claims exactly the opposite.
For this scrutiny, Goldbar can thank Eye
on Sacramento, a tax-minded watchdog
group that contends the center frittered
away $218 million in city funds since 1999.
That money comes from a tax on hotel
guests and other temporary lodgers that Eye
on Sacramento says would be better used to
employ police officers, maintain city parks
and pay for a long-delayed upgrade of the
Community Center Theater.
“There are a lot of areas that are of a lot
higher priority than maintaining a mediocre
management over at the convention center,”
says Eye on Sacramento research director Dennis Neufeld, one of the report’s
co-authors.

Both the Eye on
Sacramento and
Management Partners
studies recommend
the city contract
out maintenance
and operation of the
Sacramento Convention
Center to a private
company.
For her part, Goldbar, who’s more
comfortable promoting tourist-friendly
garden shows and nail expos than answering questions about how she spends the
city’s money, doesn’t dispute Eye on
Sacramento’s figures. She acknowledges
that the center reaps the lion’s share of
Sacramento’s transient-occupancy tax—a
fancy term for a 12-percent “hotel tax”
overnight visitors pay whether they’re renting a motel room or a private campsite—
but says that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Since the convention center completed
a major expansion in 1996, it’s received
approximately $16 million a year in hoteltax receipts—80 percent of the fund. Much
of the money chips away at the center’s
bond debt, while nearly $6 million supports
BEFORE

|

NEWS

|

BEST

OF

operations like salaries and benefits, property taxes and additional overhead.
“It’s not all payroll and toilet paper,”
says administrative officer Tina McCarty.
But it is a hefty carve-out in a city with
several municipal mouths to feed, leaving
“just crumbs that go the the general fund,”
Neufeld says. The center’s modest revenue
growth since fiscal year 2000-01 calls into
question the wisdom of bullish ’90s projections, he adds.
Without the subsidy, the convention
center likely wouldn’t survive, at least not
in its current form. That hasn’t discouraged
officials from considering another major
build-out, even as critics say the center isn’t
using up the space it has now to warrant
such pipe-dreaming.
But others say you gotta build it bigger
to make them come.
“We’re either in the convention-center
business or are soon going to be out of the
business,” McCarty says.
Those within the convention business
say they’re the reason hotel-tax receipts
doubled since fiscal year 1995-96—from
$9.8 million then to $19.7 million in
2012-13—and maintain that they were
always supposed to collect most of it.
“It’s not ‘A River of Red Ink’ if this
is the city’s business plan,” says Goldbar,
referring to the Eye on Sacramento report’s
bruising title.
And to be sure, chapter 3.28 of the
Sacramento City Code directs the hotel
tax—which was established in 1976 and
last raised in 1992—to be spent solely on
“public assembly and convention halls.”
But ordinances can be changed, and
Eye on Sacramento isn’t the only critic of
the city’s approach.
Three years ago, the city commissioned
a top-to-bottom review of its financial
operations. The audit spawned a 120-pluspage report from Management Partners, a
government consulting firm. Among other
things, it concluded that Sacramento gave
much more of its hotel-tax funds to the
convention center than the nine other mostpopulated cities in California.
Six of the nine cities invested 100
percent of their hotel-tax receipts in their
general funds. Three cities put 40 percent to
52 percent back into these accounts. At the
time of the April 2010 report, Sacramento
returned 17 percent to its general fund.
Today, that figure is closer to 13 percent.
“The principle for the establishment of
the TOT is that visitors to a city should pay
their fair share of taxes to support the core
services and infrastructure needs created
by the presence,” the report states. Giving
SACRAMENTO

most of the money to the convention center,
it contends, “denies the City significant
revenue from one of the few sources that
can offset” the lack of property taxes from
state-owned buildings.
Both the Eye on Sacramento and
Management Partners studies recommend
the city cut down on its convention-center
dole by contracting out maintenance
and operation of the center to a private
company.
The convention center’s deputy general
manager, Matthew Voreyer, maintains that
“private management would be different,”
but couldn’t specify how when asked.

“Don’t need to be first, but don’t want to be
last,” he quips.
To put Sacramento square back in
the fair-to-middling column could cost
anywhere from $50 million to $200 million,
according to media reports, figures Larson
says he can’t confirm.
“I know those are Craig Powell’s
figures, but Craig Powell likes to just pull
[them] out of his ass,” he says, referring to
Eye on Sacramento’s president.
Meanwhile, Eye on Sacramento says
there’s no way the city can look to its
TOT fund to support another expansion,
upgrades to its community theater and act

A city-commissioned study showed that a majority of major
California cities’ hotel-tax revenue goes entirely to their general
funds. In Sacramento, that figure is closer to 13 percent—with
most of the dollars going to the convention center.

Management Partners also suggests the
city could allocate more hotel-tax money to
its general fund once the convention center
repays its $8 million-a-year debt seven
years from now. But that money won’t be
available if the city decides to refinance the
existing debt toward another phased expansion, as some are calling for.
The Sacramento Convention & Visitors
Bureau’s Brian Larson is leading a study
that could recommend doubling the
convention center in size once the current
bond is paid off.
The genesis for the study was a 2010
consultant’s report that found Sacramento’s
convention center struggling to keep up
with the Joneses in San Francisco, San
Jose, Los Angeles and a number of other
competing convention towns. Sacramento
is due to fall even further behind once a
number of those cities complete their own
planned expansions, argues Larson, who’s
on the bureau’s executive committee.

as a potential insurance policy if parking
revenues can’t cover proposed arena bonds.
Whether the fund is overextended is a
question for city officials, Larson says.
(A spokesman released a blanket media
statement calling the Eye on Sacramento
report “inaccurate.”)
“We think it will have some serious
impact on whether the expansion gets
approved or not,” Neufeld says of his
group’s findings.
As for how much bigger Sacramento’s
convention center can—and should—get,
Larson believes there’s plenty of space for
the time being.
“For now, my job in my lifetime is to
support [convention-center expansion].
… We want sustained growth, smart
growth, for the next 25 years,” says
Larson, one of five hospitality-industry
leaders on the bureau’s six-person executive committee. “The next one? That’s on
somebody else.”
Ω

| A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R | 09.12.13

|

SN&R

|

13

14 | SN&R | 09.12.13

e

ach
year,
SN&r aSkS
itS readerS
to vote for
their favorite SacrameNto placeS.

Best

of

sAcrAmento

2013

This year, 30,082 votes were
cast in more than 100 categories.
You’ll find the winners in the
following pages—plus nearly
100 Best of Sacramento picks
by SN&R’s writers. Thanks for
reading, and thanks for being
awesome!
Celebrating the people
who make Sn&r’S beSt of
SaCramento a SuCCeSS:
Art Director: Hayley Doshay
PhotogrAPhers: Steven Chea, Ryan
Donahue, Bobby Mull, Anne Stokes

Arts &
Smarts
Discover more about
Sofia Lacin and
Hennessy Christophel,
the two women painting
up a craze on SN&R’s
Best of 2013 cover.

Travel &
Sports

AD oPerAtions: Melissa Bernard,
Will Niespodzinski

sPeciAl kuDos to: Greg Erwin and the distribution team for putting out the biggest issue
of the year, human-resources director Tanja
Poley, the operations department, the accounting department, executive coordinator Jessica
Takehara, directors of first impressions Alicia
Brimhall and Matt Kjar, and SN&R owners
Deborah Redmond and Jeff vonKaenel.

Hitting the road or the
gym? Killer workouts
or Capitol cooties, rural
castles or pickup soccer?
It’s up to you.

iznero.”
That’s what
old-school
Sacramento
bartender
extraordinaire Chris
Tucker calls
chef Brian Mizner’s secret hot
sauce, a habanero-based concoction hidden behind Hook &
Ladder Manufacturing Co.’s bar.
Tucker can mix a cocktail with
the chef’s heat (just ask), but the
reason to bring it up is twofold:
Mizner has a predeliction for fire,
and he’s also the hottest new (but
not-so-new) chef in town.
On a recent weeknight,
Mizner’s in the back of Hook’s
Midtown kitchen, loading some
veal bones, roasted off with
tomato paste, into a big pot
with veggies, cold water and
herbs. This is the beginning
of a different sauce, the base
for many of Hook’s expansive,
intrepid menu items, of which
Sacramentans seem unable to
stop talking about since the
restaurant opened last fall.
Who is this new chef? Well, it
turns out Mizner, 35, has been at
it for years.
Rewind 20: A pizzeria in
Cameron Park, Papa Gianni’s
Ristorante, where an “old, grumpy
Italian guy,” Mizner said, taught
the chef how to make pizza. “The
dough, the care in making the
dough—how you let it rest, how
you let it rise, how you store it” is
what matters, he shares.
Eventually, Mizner traveled
down the hill for a stint at City
Treasure in Midtown, followed
by stops at Masque Ristorante in

El Dorado Hills, L Wine Lounge
and Urban Kitchen, Hot Italian.
And now, Hook.
Tucker, who oversees Hook’s
bar, worked with Mizner at L Wine
and praises the chef’s “unabashadly Californian cuisine.” Which
is maybe an ’80s way of saying
local, natural, healthful, inventive
“farm-to-fork” eats, such as rotund
heirloom tomatoes, sliced thick
and served with lemon cucumbers,
burrata, frisee and dressing. Or
pepper-jack cheese curds with
cut-up pluots, Thai chilies and
basil, rice-wine vinegar and cilantro. Plus, game and fish and steaks
are in the mix. The chef certainly
embraces the NorCal breadbasket.
But Mizner and his team—
which includes chefs Greg Pilapil
and Vinny Lazzaretto—truly
excel with Hook’s pasta dishes:
beet linguine, carmelized onion
and potato ravioli, even vegan and
(soon) gluten-free pastas. It’s an
ever-changing Italian influence.
“You should see our freezer.
We have 20 different types of
pasta at any time,” Mizner said,
proudly.
When he’s not in the kitchen,
you might bump into the griddwelling chef around town,
cruising for happy-hour deals, or
maybe clamoring for “tacos and
Thai food,” he said. And, perhaps
in the near future, hawking his
hot sauce. “The habanero sauce,
we’re going to try to start marketing it soon.”
And why not? The name
certainly sticks. 1630 S Street,
(916) 442-4885, http://hookand
ladder916.com.
Ω

“ Best
photo by ryan donahue

BEFORE

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OF

SACRAMENTO

|

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| 09.12.13

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V O T E D

BEST
EST SUS
SUSHI

05, 07, 08, 09,
10, 11 & 12

2516 J Street · 551–1559
www.krurestaurant.com

sunday specials
our wings are back!

10 ¢
w in g s
a l l d ay
long

hone y chipotle bbq •

|

SN&R

|

09.12.13

• s p ic e y m a ry

spice y teriya k i •

• f u l ly l o a d e d

buffalo •

• g r e at at a n y
t im e o f day

1501 L St, Sac
18

$5 bl oody m a rys

|

916.443.0500

|

w w w. 3 F i r e s L o u n g e . c o m

FOOD & DRINK
photo by ryan donahue

by Becky Grunewald

Best pie for dessert—

or Breakfast

p

Kira O’Donnell’s Real Pie Company

ie
are
pie
are

lovers—
there any
haters?—
rejoicing

same roof. She’ll be featuring some
late-summer stone-fruit pies and then
easing into autumn with apples, figs,
quinces, persimmons and walnuts.
Grandma
Margaret
taught
O’Donnell to bake, and she even uses
her rolling pin to roll out the pie dough.
“I’d like to think her spirit is with me
when I bake pies,” O’Donnell said.
She honed her baking skills in a few
different restaurant kitchens, including
Chez Panisse.

the return of Kira
O’Donnell’s Real
Pie Company. Her
original storefront had an enviable
problem: It was too busy. O’Donnell
was not prepared for the lines and
pressure, and she closed the shop after
12 months.

A self-described “control freak,”
O’Donnell constructs all the pies
herself; she only allows her employees
to do the fruit prep and roll the dough.

Now, she’s back—but not better
than ever, because her pies already
were perfection the first time around.
O’Donnell is taking things slow
and will be selling her pies two days
a week out of the gate. Avoiding the
complications that come from maintaining a storefront, she’ll be vending from the East Sac Mercantile, a
consortium of businesses all under the
BEFORE

|

NEWS

She’s been asked many times, but
won’t share the secret to her tender
crust, except to say that it’s composed
of only flour, butter, salt and water.
Somehow, she takes that simple

mixture and creates a dessert that is not
only delicious, but gorgeous to look at.
I will never forget a mixed-berry
pie I got from Real Pie Company in
2008. It had star shapes cut out of the
flaky, browned crust, and the deeppurple juices had bubbled through,
and it was just as good with coffee
for breakfast as it was after dinner.
I’ve eaten a lot of desserts in my
time and forgotten most of them—
except maybe my grandma’s ambrosia
(which I wish I could forget)—but
this was a pie to remember. Now that
O’Donnell is back, I can pack away
my memories and get back to eating
Real Pie. East Sac Mercantile, 3257
Folsom Boulevard; (916) 705-9621;
www.realpiecompany.com.
Ω

“ Best

of ”

continued on page

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OF

SACRAMENTO

|

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www.inkeats.com

A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R

| 09.12.13

|

SN&R

|

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Nominated for
Best Mediterranean

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a b i g m e s s a g e t o o u r l o ya l c u s t o m e r s :

for 30 years of support!
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ept 16

Thank you for voTing us among The
Top Three resTauranTs serving

FOOD & DRINK
writers’ picks

continued from page 19
Preservation and Co.’s Jason Poole is
an award-winning “jartender.” And
that’s a good thing—if you’re into
Bloody Marys or preserved pickles.

This company, whose employees call
themselves “jartenders,” established
itself in 2011. Co-owners Jason Poole
and Brad Peters currently sell pickle
products with names such as Balsamic
Beets, Horseradish Dilly Beans and
Black Pepper Asparagus. It won’t be
long before Preservation’s popularity
skyrockets: Its Bloody Mary recipe,
available at the company’s store,
won second place in a 2012 national
competition hosted by Absolut Vodka.
And the pair used Kickstarter earlier
this year to help pay for supplies after
opening a new warehouse space in
Midtown. Oh, and they use produce
from local farms. Sample some of the
products at Pour House, where Poole
is a bar manager. 1717 19th Street,
www.preservationandco.com. J.M.

BEFORE

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NEWS

If you hadn’t deduced as much from
its name, this spot prides itself on its
sweet-and-savory fried chicken. But
the real reason to make the trek out to
Savory Fried Chicken in Elk Grove
is the malasadas. These Portugese
doughnut-type confections—chewier
and more breadlike than their
American-style counterparts, and
rolled in granulated sugar once they
come out of the fryer—are also a staple
in Hawaii, but this homey Filipino spot
serves them up, too. One order of 10
malasadas is less than five bucks, but
for a few extra dollars, you’re going
to want to order the vanilla ice cream
on the side—a pleasantly sticky, cold
companion to the warm pastries. You
almost can’t help but go into goldfish
mode once you take the first bite, so
it’s best to bring a few friends along,
|

Best new
vegetarian dining
Bodhi Bowl
Remember when you were little,
and going out to eat at a restaurant was a treat, a special event
in itself? That’s what it feels like
for a vegetarian going to an eatery
with no animal flesh on the menu.
And while Sacramento already
has a handful of meatless joints,
there’s definitely room for more.
Fortuitously, 2013 brought one:
Bodhi Bowl in south Sacramento’s

Husband-and-wife team Danny (left)
and Olga Turner opened Pushkin’s
Bakery this year, Sacramento’s first
wheat-, gluten- and dairy-free bakery.

VEGAN FRIENDLY

1830 J ST SACRAMENTO
916.329.8678
www.sawasdeesac.com

BUY 1 GET 1 1/2 OFF
EXP 09/30/13

Buy any dinner entree at regular price,
get the second for 1/2 OFF! Must
present coupon, cannot combine with
other discounts.
ONE PER TABLE - VALID MON-THURS ONLY

PHOTO BY ANNE STOKES

Best under-the-radar
Mexican brunch

Little Saigon, near the 65th Street
and Stockton Boulevard intersection. The cuisine is Vietnamese,
so it’s light, yet filling, and there’s
pho—magical,
vegetable-fairy
concocted vegan pho. Plus, the staff
couldn’t be friendlier. This is the
kind of place where first-time diners
become regulars. 6511 Savings
Place, Suite 100; (916) 428-4160;
www.bodhibowl.com. S.

Florez Bar and Grill
South Land Park has a serious dearth
of Mexican restaurants. Florez Bar and
Grill’s breakfast is not just good for
the neighborhood, though, it is good,
period. Opening at 7 a.m. every day,
Florez, which has been around since
1981, has a big menu and a full bar,
including a paloma cocktail made with
the requisite Squirt soda, not that artisanal grapefruit foofaraw. The baskets
of chips come fast and furious, and the
portions are large. If the chip servings
aren’t enough for you, order the chipdelivery system known as chilaquiles,
covered with either verde or rojo sauce.
Get chicken on the top for an authentic
flair. They also have an entire American
breakfast menu if you just can’t live
without that chicken-fried steak (no
judgment; we all have our vices). On a
weekend, there might even be a mariachi band singing Journey songs. 5900
S. Land Park Drive, (916) 429-6864,
http://florezbarandgrill.com. B.G.

Best sandwiches in
bread pockets
Ike’s Deli & Bakery
There was something so perfectly
Rancho Cordova about Ike’s Deli &
Bakery being located next to a strip
club. But then the deli decided to go
all sophisticated on its bluest of bluecollar roots this year and move down
the street, where it’s now got windows
without any security bars and a new
logo. The most important thing, I
suppose, is that it’s still serving up
sandwiches in its singular, housemade bread pockets—something like
a cross between pita and focaccia.
Adding to the kitschy (and delicious)
experience is the eponymous and
gruff Ike, who mans the register and
may or may not take your order if you
call 10 minutes before the shop’s 2
p.m. closing time. The deli opens at
9:30 a.m. and is only open Monday
through Friday, but these strict hours
of operation are well worth adhering
to. 11210 Sun Center Drive in Rancho
Cordova, (916) 635-9808, www.ikes
deli.com. D.D.

BEFORE

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NEWS

Best pizza crust
OneSpeed
I will not say here that OneSpeed
has the best pizza in town. I will not.
Zelda’s is a whole other animal, and I
happen to be partial to Masullo. That
said, OneSpeed makes damn great
pizza and its crust is oh-so crispy. It
out-crisps any pizza joint I mentioned
above. And the eatery’s bicycle theme
hits the spot, since that’s the only way
you can get there and find a place
to park. That is, until someone runs
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BEST

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Happy Hour

with my idea to buy that comfortshoe building across the street and
put in a cute and East Sac-sanctioned,
three-story parking garage. 4818
Folsom Boulevard, (916) 706-1748,
www.onespeedpizza.com. G.G.

Monday – Friday 3–6pm
1315 21st Street, Sacramento
916.441.7100

$5 off any order
of $20 or more

Best place to be a
gluten-free fatty
Pushkin’s Bakery

Tax not included. Please present coupon. Not valid with any other offers.
Not valid with variety platter. Exp. 9/19/13.

We invite you to make this the
place to meet and greet, sip and
shop, taste and talk!

Wine
Bar

our homemade pastries and
breads are baked fresh daily
Estelle’s Patisserie is a charming, warmly lit French-style bakery and espresso
bar in the heart of Sacramento, dedicated to quality and our community.
Using fresh, local ingredients to make our pastries and desserts from
scratch every day, Estelle’s also offers breakfast and lunch items.

Wine
&
Retail
Gifts

Events

Wine
g
Shippin

Located on the corner
of 9th & K
in downtown Sacramento

Open 7 days a week:
M-F 7-6 | Sat 8-6 | Sun 8-4
Wi-fi available

#estellespatisserie
Contact us at 551-5100 or via email at info@estellespatisserie.com

Happy
Hour

Located directly across from IMAX at 12th and K Street
Lunch specials daily

DOWNTOWN & VINE
www.downtownandvine.com
(916) 228-4518

BEST OF
THE BEST

ICE CREAM
THAT’S ALWAYS
IN STYLE!

For over 66 years
Sacramento has
been preparing for
all occasions with this
handmade delight. So
scoot on over for the
delicious flavors of the
season. Made-to-order
sandwiches, ice-cream cakes
and pies are always available
at Burr’s and Vic’s.

FOOD & DRINK
writers’ picks
you eat out of nostalgic obligation—a
window into camping trips past, filled
with hot chocolate, s’mores and Rice
Crispy Treats. The gooey cylinders of
puffed sugar that are sold at grocery
stores aren’t actually good, but it’s all
most of us know. Luckily, one Lodi
company, The Rustic Puff, has set out
to change that. Crafting marshmallows out of locally sourced ingredients,
the company offers flavors like salted
margarita, maple bacon, birthday
cake, and even pilsner and pale ale.
They’re pretty, too—rough-cut, pale,
pillowy squares that are charmingly
rustic. Prices start at $5, or you can
join the Puff Club starting at $95 for
three months, which gets you early
access to the newest flavors and recipes. Available at the Midtown Farmers
Market Sacramento, Saturdays from
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; www.therustic
puff.com. D.D.

Best Midtown spot to
geek out on the suds
The #beernerdmenu at LowBrau
LowBrau is so on it’s beer game.
Consider: Brew-geek website
BeerAdvocate recently ranked
Oklahoma brewery Prairie Artisan
Ales’ Bomb!—an imperial coffee
stout brewed with chocolate and hot
chilies—as one of the 10 best new
beers of 2013. Pretty challenging
to find this brew in Sacramento—
but then LowBrau shows up with
bottles on its menu for just $12!
All sorts of treasures exist on
LowBrau’s “#beernerdmenu,” which
the restaurant and bar’s owners
update regularly on Twitter and
Instagram (visit @LowBrau916
for the hookup). 1050 20th Street,
(916) 706-2636, www.lowbrau
sacramento.com. N.M.

Best beer spot for
the kids and dogs
Berryessa Brewing Co.
A taproom out in the country doesn’t
sound like a place to bring the whole
fam, but Berryessa Brewing Co. is
a place for parents to sip a perfect
Double Tap IPA or low-alcohol
Common Sense, or a shockingly fresh,
hoppy Saazer Pilsner—made with
Czech noble hops—while the kiddies
safely frolic. There’s a large area for
them to run around and games to
play, such as cornhole (relax, it’s just
a bean-bag toss), and plenty of room
to roam in the big gravel lot, which
has cushioned a lot of baby falls, and
it’s easy for parents on the outside
picnic tables to keep an eye out for
cars pulling in and out. Then they have
one eye free to focus on their delicious
brew. 27260 Highway 128 in Winters,
(530) 795-3526, http://berryessa
brewingco.com. B.G.

Best brewery
for Land Park dads
New Helvetia Brewing Company

|

Best place to feel like
a happy-hour princess
Blackbird Kitchen & Bar
Arrive during happy hour for a $2
Miller High Life and $5 fish tacos,
but stay for upscale entrees and highfalutin cocktails. Here, the food is an
adventure of texture, flavor and color,
so sensuously transformative you’ll be
feeling like the princess of happy hour
(personal gender ID notwithstanding). Grab an order of the Truffle
Tremor cheese, served with honey,
fig jam and the terrifyingly delightful
crunch of black-pepper sugar glass.
Wash it down with a post-prandial
Fernet-Branca, or counter it with a
can of the ever-cheap and palatecleansing Olympia Beer. With victuals
this good, you can forget moderation.
1015 Ninth Street, (916) 498-9224,
www.blackbird-kitchen.com. J.B.

Best place to drop
cash on acid
Corti Brothers’ vinegar selection
Behind the glass-encased miniature
museum of unusual spurs—they’re
pasta cutters, actually—by the entrance
of East Sacramento’s institution of
fine foods, Corti Brothers, there is a
formidable selection of imported vinegars. Some of the bottles of artisanal,
sweetly tangy fermented liquid have
red wax melted onto their cork tops.
One small bottle from Italy is even
displayed in an old wooden box with
a handwritten note—and a price tag
of $499.99. But there are more affordable bottles of liquid acid to splurge
on for, say, $139.99. Walk down the
aisle, though, to find yet several more
shelves of the stuff for less than $20
a pop. The petite 6.75-ounce bottle
BEFORE | NEWS

readers’ picks

continued from page 23

Best lack of
raisin fear and
extra walnuts
Carrot cake at Magpie Cafe and
Selland’s Market-Cafe
Have people finally stopped hating on
carrot cake? You can find a good slice
at just about every bakery and restaurant in Sacramento. For me, though,
it comes down to two: the carrot-cake
cookies at Magpie Cafe and the superb
cake from Selland’s Market-Cafe.
Magpie gets extra points for not being
afraid to have raisins in its mix, while
Selland’s wins the overall rounds for
its moist, just dense-enough cake, the
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SACRAMENTO

New Helvetia Brewing Company
is proving itself as a much-needed
reprieve from the diapers and doldrums
of young family life for Land Park’s
domesticated residents. And, really,
it’s an excellent place to wind down.
Grab one of eight or nine beers on
the ever-changing tap list, step out to
the back patio and remember what
it’s like to be young again. If you’re
lucky, the owners will swing through
and give you a tour of the back room.
1730 Broadway, (916) 469-9889,
http://newhelvetiabrew.com. D.K.

Best multilingual
shopping experience
KP International Market
This international supermarket really
puts the emphasis on “international.”
As in, it staffs people who can speak
Russian, Spanish, Korean and English.
Likewise, it also sells Russian, Mexican,
Korean and American groceries. So, if
you eat like I do, your cart might
have a can of Spam, a bag of tortillas,
kimchee and piroshki. Warning: Once
you shop here, it’s hard not to expect
every other grocery store to step it up
with a larger variety of grocery selections. 10971 Olson Drive in Rancho
Cordova, (916) 853-8000, www.kp
internationalmarket.com. J.M.

Best beer-aisle
surprise
Curtis Park Market
For years, the Curtis Park Market
smelled like rotting fruit and veggies.
But people would hold their nose
and buy their 12-pack of PBR there
anyway. These days, it’s a whole
different market. You can make your
own six-pack out of craft-beer singles,
and there is an array of Belgian and
American brews and a surprising selection of European candy bars (KitKat
Hazelnut Cream, anyone?). The prices
are good, too. It’s no Pangaea Two
Brews Cafe, but it’s damn better than
offerings of only Bud Light Lime.
2703 24th Street, (916) 456-6488. G.G.

Cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers.
One coupon per table/order. Expires 10/12/13

SACRAMENTO

“ Best

of ”

CONTINuED ON PaGE

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29

1402 Broadway 916.930.0888

Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm
Fri & Sat 11am-10:30pm

A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R

1 coupon per
table. cannot be
combined with
any other offer.
expires 09/26/13

China
Buffet

5623 Sunrise Blvd.
916.961.6888

PARTY ROOMS AVAILABLE
NOW SERVING BEER & WINE

original coupon
only • no copies

chinabuffetrestaurant.com

| 09.12.13

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SN&R

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28

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SN&R | 09.12.13

T

by Deena Drewis

BEsT placE for

&
BlanKETs
snail

There’s the Eclectic Center,
a strip mall with a whirligig
roofline, painted in absurd
yellows and pinks; a roller
rink; and a place called the
Blow Lounge, which isn’t as
exciting as the name makes it
sound (it’s a hookah bar).
This area is also home to
the best Korean restaurants,
shops and services in town.
And standing sentinel to
Sacto’s humble K-town, just
off Highway 50’s Bradshaw
Road exit, is a store called

Sacramento’s Koreatown
and Smile Food Market

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NEWS

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BEST

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SACRAMENTO

he stretch
of
folsom
Boulevard
n e a r
sacramento’s
rosemont

neighborhood is kind of what
I imagine Wonderland would
look like if Alice had been a
high-school burnout that hung
out with the Korean kids.

facials
BEFORE

PHOTO BY RYAN DONAHUE

Smile Food Market. For the
uninitiated, the store is a
wonder of sights and smells:
a wall of freezers full of dried
squid; bags of rice that could
crush a small child; kimchee
jars the size of a pony keg;
whole aisles dedicated to
varieties of dried seaweed and
packaged ramen.
Outside on the street,
there’s a sign that reads “Smile
Home Shopping” and below it,
“Korean Cosmetic & Blanket,”
which refers to the homegoods store that went in next
to the market a few years ago.
It blends in seamlessly with the
food market, but it is not to be
missed, because inside, there
are in fact a whole bunch of
cosmetics and tons of blankets.
I know non-Koreans reading this right now are like,
“Blankets?” But sleeping
under the leaden weight of a
good Korean blanket is a thing
of beauty, imparting the sense
that you might never escape

from under its heft, which is
really comforting, in a nihilistic kind of way.
The store is positively
packed, hoarder-style, with
bowls, spoons, rice cookers,
foot spas, fitness hula hoops—
you get the idea. And as for
the cosmetics? The selection
is vast, but my most exciting discoveries were the Snail
Aquaring SOS Mask, made
with “snail mucus components”; and the Placenta
Revital Essential Mask, the
description for which was very
vague. Both were $3.99, so, it’s
like, “Why not, right?”
You get way more adventure for your dollar here than
a regular store. Alice would
approve. 2948 Bradshaw Road,
(916) 369-8543.
Ω

place where we can get great records,
[and] I realized that there was a way
to help people buy records.”

along with The
Beat and many
other record stores
that once dotted
the
area—but
Sacramento might
still have a chance of returning to its
former glory as a record-store destination, if Zack Shaw has his way.

Though Sacramento may no
longer be in its record-shop prime,
it still has some good ones, and
the city is certainly not short on
vinyl enthusiasts: Ben Johnson (of
Records on Broadway) and Marty
DeAnda (of the Dig Music label)
have participated in past RCRDS
(perfect acronym) events, along
with eight to 12 other people. The
monthly traveling RCRDS swaps
take place on Second Saturdays and
have attracted anywhere from 50 to
100 people, and featured upward of
1,000 records at hip venues, such
as Bows & Arrows and Jimmy’s
Barber Garage. It’s a free-form
record swap, meaning that anyone

Shaw, whose dad was a Tower
Records employee from 1964 to 1976,
helped start the River City Record
Diggers Society in July after recently
moving to Sac from Los Angeles and
hearing that The Beat was closing.
“We’re super close to [matching
Los Angeles] with a rich recordselling history,” said Shaw. “This is a
BEFORE

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NEWS

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BEST

OF

interested in selling records can email
rcrds@mail.com to sign up.
Shaw said he wants Sacramento
to be a destination for record enthusiasts in the same sense that tour buses
regularly unload shoppers at Amoeba
Records in Los Angeles.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys
invovled, and it’s a good, growing
group of people [selling records],”
Shaw said. “It’s evolving, maybe
even beyond Second Saturday.”
River City Record Diggers Society,
www.facebook.com/rivercity
recorddiggerssociety.
Ω

The Sacramento Yoga Center has openings for teachers of yoga and other
spiritually-oriented discipines. Do you know of anyone (including yourself) who is
looking for a wonderful teaching venue? Our teachers are private contractors (not
employees) and must provide evidence of insurance. Contact Jeff at 916-996-5645
2791 24th St. at the Sierra 2 Community Center, Room 6
(916) 996–5645 • www.sacramentoyogacenter.com • Jeff12345@zoho.com

Best people to bring
you a snickerdoodle
at 2 a.m.
Cookies & Milk
There was once a brave and entrepreneurial spirit who thought: “There
needs to be a late-night cookie-delivery
company through which people can
order cookies and milk, all without
putting down their iPads.” Thus,
Sacramento’s Cookies & Milk delivery
service was born, filling the void. The
hours are perfect for those burning the
midnight oil on weekends: Thursday
through Saturday, from 8 p.m. to 2:30
a.m. Staple cookie flavors include
chocolate chip, sugar and peanut butter,
and there are weekly specials as well.
(916) 539-3205, www.cookiesnmilk
delivery.com. J.M.

Best blast to the
20th-century past
Thunderhorse Vintage
Want to know where in town you can
watch The Hugga Bunch on an old
VHS while relaxing on a couch with
an ALF doll and rocking out to some
old-school Prince? Thunderhorse
Vintage, the pitch-perfect blast to your
’90s-kid past. This geek-chic boutique
has all the Gremlins, Ghostbusters
and California Raisin paraphernalia
you could possibly need. Plus fanny
packs. And if, by chance, you can’t
find the neon-green shorts you’re
looking for, ask the dude behind the
counter dressed like an early ’90s
rapper. He’ll have you looking fresh
in no time. 2522 J Street, Suite A;
(916) 444-7723; http://thunder
horsevintage.tumblr.com. D.K.

Most egalitarian
comic-book store
Empire’s Comics Vault
Everyone finally knows that girls
read comic books, right? Right. But
as is the case with all industries
that started out as boys clubs (you
know, politics, art, advertising, etc.),
there’s some lingering resistance to
letting women in. Which is why
it’s so refreshing to come across
people like Ben Schwartz, owner of
Empire’s Comics Vault, who held
the first Creative Women Mini-Con
at his store in August, which featured
a dozen female comic-book artists
from the area. It was a huge success:
“The store was packed wall-to-wall,”
he said. “We did not have enough
room to fit all the creators I would
have liked to have down. There are
just too many talented women in
the immediate area. That just means

Best place for
bicycle toggery
Edible Pedal
You ride a bike, and that’s great. But
you do not need to be wearing spandex. Flashy, fat-roll emphasizing,
garish spandex—the second cousin
of velour tracksuits with “Juicy”
emblazoned on the rump. You’re not
pulling it off. What would be vastly
more handsome, however, is a nice
pair of plus fours (short trousers that
gather 4 inches below the knee). This
classic piece of clothing is a lot more
attractive than shiny bike shorts, and
Edible Pedal keeps respectable riding
togs like this in stock, including those
made by Duso, Sacramento-based
designer Amanda Carroll’s clothingdesign company. Duso makes the
pants with secondhand slacks, and
will alter your chosen pair to fit your
hard biking body perfectly. Pairing
them with one of the label’s vintage
plaid button-ups—the long sleeves
are cut off and made into pockets sewn onto the back—will turn
heads as your two wheels roll down

the road, and not because you look
like you’re wearing sausage casing.
1712 Liestal Row, (916) 822-5969,
www.ediblepedal.com. S.

Best shopping while
your hair gets
chemically altered
Cuffs Closet at Deeda Salon
Sometimes, a girl’s just got to wait
to become beautiful. But while she’s
watching the clock as her new hair
color sets in, it may be hard to control
her wandering eye from fixating on
the racks of fluttering chiffon hems
and quirky bronze-toned necklaces
inside of Deeda Salon. The clever
bastards at Midtown boutique Cuffs
(2523 J Street, Suite 101) set up an
East Sacramento outpost called Cuffs
Closet inside of the beautification
hub, with a selection of blouses, skirts
and dresses to thumb through, perfect
for Deeda clients to complete their
makeovers with. And since the salon
is open longer than the boutique’s J
Street location on most days (10 a.m.
to 8 p.m. vs. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., respectively), it’s good news for some pretty
lady’s wardrobe. 1734 34th Street,
(916) 456-0600, http://deedasalon.
com; www.shopcuffs.com. S.

into your life with lunchtime meditation classes every Wednesday at
Wisdom Kadampa Buddhist Center.
For the price of a Frappuccino, meet
Midtowners from all walks of life
looking for bliss and inner calmness
instead. Or, solve your case of the
Mondays after work with an in-depth
discussion of practices that can help
you chill out and build up some good
karma. 1200 S Street, Suite B; (916)
668-9562; lunch meditation is on
Wednesdays at noon for $5; drop-in
meditation is on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
for $10. C.D.

Best old-school
neighborhood
pharmacy

e
h
t
e
p
a
c
s

e
l
g
Jun

E

WIThh our
WIT

1/2 off

SPA PAcKAge
Tame your Wildlife with this 2 hour & 15 minute Package.

Parkside Pharmacy

Sisters Marilyn (left) and Jen Ayres of
Thunderhorse Vintage strike a balance between
geek and chic—with fanny packs to boot.

You could get that prescription for
antidepressants (or, ahem, whatever
the doctor prescribed) at one of those
generic chain drugstores, but luckily, there’s a cooler option. Tucked
into a South Land Park shopping
center, Parkside Pharmacy makes for
a quaint alternative in a world of
Walgreens and Rite Aids. Its spacious
interior is home to standard pharmacy
services and products, as well as spa
services and a boutique area stocked
with giftworthy soaps, candles,
jewelry and home accessories.
4404 Del Rio Road, (916) 452-2200,
www.myparksidepharmacy.com. R.L.

I n c l u d e s f a c i a l , s t e a m t re a t m e n t & m o re.

.com
❀

3421 ArDen WAy 555 cAPITol mAll DrIve, SuITee 276

(corner of WATT & ArDen
behInD burger KIng)

Best place to ease
pet anxiety
Mueller Pet Medical Center
It’s bad enough having a sick or
injured pet—it’s worse when something happens to your beloved animal
outside normal vet hours. Mueller
Pet Medical Center helps to somewhat ease the fear and anxiety that
accompanies that 2 a.m. emergency—
kidney failure, broken bones, vomiting, seizures, you name it—with its
24-hour urgent-care services. The vets
here, many of whom are working
through residencies, offer immediate
treatment, and also team up with your
pet’s regular doc to obtain records
or transfer of care, etc. The sleek,
sprawling facility is secure, with
an after-hours building entry—nice
to know when you’re rolling up in
those darkest of predawn hours,
worried sick about your baby. 7625
Freeport Boulevard, (916) 428-9202,
www.muellerpmc.com. R.L.

Best lunchtime
moment of Zen

Best stain detectors
Call it the CSI effect. But whenever
people find out what Scott Koll does

|

NEWS

EVENT OF THE FALL!
Saturday, September 14th

7-10 pm

Room & ticket packages with complimentary pre-party!
Contact Patricia at 916-932-2751 for Reservations
Located at the top level of the brick parking structure in Historic Folsom at Leidesdorff & Reading

Purchase your tickets today!

www.TopOfFolsom.com
email: info@historicfolsom.org

Top of Folsom brings together Fine Artists, Northern California Wineries, Breweries and Chefs, along with Performing
Artists and Musical performances in a unique setting under
the starry skies of beautiful Historic Folsom.
Enjoy Great Food, Art, Wine, Beer, Music & More!

Wisdom Kadampa Buddhist Center

Roseville CSI

BEFORE

Kari Shipman and Marty DeAnda are
a buddy-cop movie waiting to happen.
Shipman is the sharp-eyed millennial who cultivates Sacramento’s
up-and-coming fashion talent like a
doting aunt. And DeAnda is the buff
baby boomer whose geek-worthy
vinyl collection could perk up even
the most heartbroken customer of
recently shuttered record store The
Beat. Together, they run Flywheel,
a happy collision of fashion-forward
style and throwback rock ’n’ roll.
“This is a store of memories,” DeAnda
says. “And we can tolerate each other,
which is awesome,” teases Shipman.
What unites the two business partners
is an undimmed flare for sharing rare
gems, whether it’s a mint Rolling
Stones album or a frilled clutch
purse made from recycled bicycle
tires and vintage fabric. “Our thing
is to get people to know we exist,”
says DeAnda, referring to Flywheel’s
spot in a hidden alley of Downtown
Plaza. That shouldn’t be a problem
for much longer. 545 Downtown
Plaza, Suite 1047; (916) 600-4308;
www.facebook.com/sacflywheel. RFH

|

When your co-workers’ coffeebreak gossip has you at wits end,
inject a little wisdom and patience
BEST
OF
SACRAMENTO

“ Best

of ”

continued on page

|

(2nD floor, In bofA blDg on
corner of 5Th AnD cAPITol)

‘06, ‘07, ‘08,
‘11, ‘12

THE ART,
FOOD & WINE

Best hide and seek out
Flywheel

for a living, the expectations get a
little ridiculous. It’s true, the Roseville
Police Department property-andevidence supervisor oversees one of
the most advanced forensics labs in
the region, second only to the U.S.
Department of Justice. But because
of the booming interest in crimescene investigation, thanks to CBS’
long-in-the-tooth franchise and other
programs like Showtime’s Dexter,
Koll has to sometimes explain that he
can’t build suspect profiles using just
an eyelash and wad of spit. In fact, the
Roseville unit’s claim to prominence
is a piece of equipment that differentiates whether an evidence sample is
blood or seminal fluid. Yes, that’s
it. And no, it’s not as easy as you
think. “That is a mark of distinction
for our region,” Koll says. Bad guys,
beware. Roseville Police Department,
1051 Junction Boulevard in Roseville;
(916) 774-5000; www.roseville.ca.us/
police. RFH

Tickets available at all Dimple Records Locations, The Beat Records, and Armadillo Records, or purchase by phone @ 916.443.9202
40

|

SN&R | 09.12.13

by Raheem F. hosseini

Best
midnight
cowBoy
Rod Tyler,

doorman at Simon’s
Bar & Cafe

T

he late-afternoon
sun splashing
against his boot
heels, rod tyler
sits at the bar,
nursing
the
last
quarter
of a steadily warming beer.
Dressed in his signature
wide-brimmed Stetson and
matching black shirt buttoned
to the collar, Tyler, who turns
78 this month, has his back to
the door, an unusual sight for
those who know the cowboy.
If you’ve ever stumbled
down 16th Street in search of
a strong drink on a weekend
night, chances are you’ve run
across Tyler. Tall and drawn,
with a back cut from pine, the
cowboy has become a downtown fixture at Simon’s Bar
& Cafe, where he’s worked
the door for half a decade.
But this is one of the
gentleman’s days off, so he
empties his glass, switches to
vodka and chats warmly with
a stranger about his eventful,
knockabout life.
The Stetson has an
unlikely origin. A doctor long
ago told Tyler his eyes were
light sensitive, and he’d need

PHOTO BY STEVEN CHEA

BEFORE

|

NEWS

|

BEST

OF

SACRAMENTO

|

A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R

to start wearing a ball cap to
shield the sun.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell
when I’d wear a baseball
hat,” Tyler says. “So, I went
down and got myself a black
cowboy hat. And yes, I’ve
ridden.”
He doesn’t mean just
horses. The former Marine,
who says he almost got blown
to bits aboard a tank at Camp
Pendleton, rode the bulls
in Redwood City until, he
cracks, “I found out they were
trying to kill me.”
Tyler briefly took to racing
motorcycles, but eventually
settled into a lengthy career
with Caltrans. It was after
retirement when Simon Chan
himself, who knew Tyler ran
a bar called Rod’s Hideaway
in San Francisco during the
1960s, asked the cowboy to
help him keep the peace.
There hasn’t been a fight
at the bar since. Asked his
secret, the thrice-married
cowboy grins.
“Be nice. And if you
can’t be nice, stand close.”
He pauses. “Because they
can’t swing at you.” 1415 16th
Street, (916) 442-7668.
Ω

Chief Keef and Tyler, the Creator.
The enthusiasm shown by the teenyboppers here makes for a refreshing
change from the tepid head-bobbing
that passes for enthusiasm at most
shows on the grid. Oldsters can hang
in one of the two bars, which both
have excellent sight lines—no pushing or moshing necessary. Best of all,
the staff at Ace of Spades actually
starts its shows on time, and they’re
done by 11 p.m., the perfect time
to catch a ride home with Mom or
Dad. 1417 R Street, (877) 463-2875,
www.aceofspadessac.com.
Ω

The teenage boredom that runs
rampant in the suburbs—even in
this Internet age—can breed rabid
music fandom. And Ace of Spades is
perfectly attuned to serve this crowd.
It’s an all-ages venue that features a
calendar split between typical Juggalo
fare, such as Twiztid and (Hed)
P.E., and cutting-edge rap, such as

“ Best

of ”

continued on page

cRest theatRe

at teenage

among those in
Midtown, but the
crowd at Ace of
Spades represents a
more admirable side of the consequences of sprawl.

Best place
to get grimy
Grimey dance night at The Press Club
Grimey, duh. DJ Whores—a.k.a.
Daniel Osterhoff—created this
biweekly dance night three years ago.
What is it, exactly? Well, Osterhoff
describes it as “future bass.” Or,
to be more specific: “It showcases
the newest styles and trends in
heavy, low-end and electronic dance
music.” You don’t have to know
what the musical genre is called,
however, to appreciate the huge bass
drops, danceable beats and snatches
of rap artfully mixed in. Osterhoff
even mixed the classic Ying Yang
Twins hit “Whistle While You
Twurk” a few weeks back. Everyother Tuesday night at 9 p.m. at

The Press Club, Grimey consistently
features an impressive roster of guest
deejays—some who are nationally
or internationally touring artists, and
some who are locals from surrounding areas. On any given Grimey
night here, there may be spontaneous
break-dancing, a local rapper doing
a set, a barefoot bride-to-be who’s
had many too many, a weirdo raver
with light-up gloves, and, for sure, a
mixed crowd of folks having a good
time. If you don’t twerk, or even
dance at all, just sit back and watch
Osterhoff at work, fluidly mixing at
incredible speeds. Or buy a pair of
light-up gloves and make jazz hands.
2030 P Street, www.facebook.com/
grimeybass. B.G.

44 | SN&R | 09.12.13

Best late-night eats
with quadrilingual
karaoke
Blue Moon Cafe and Karaoke
If you always wanted to stay up past
midnight, eat some ice-cream and
fruit-filled crepes, drink a bucket
of beer, and sing karaoke in four
languages (Cantonese, Mandarin,
Vietnamese and English), there’s a
place for that: It’s Blue Moon Cafe
and Karaoke, and it’s a cha chaan
teng, which means “tea food hall”
in Cantonese (the same language
the staff speaks). The dining room
is in the front, and in the back
are private karaoke rooms. And
the place is open late. Like, really
late—until 2 a.m. Monday through

Best budget party
bus to save you
from that DUI
Sac Town Hopper
All aboard the party bus! The Sac
Town Hopper, that is. A service
provided by the Amador Stage
Lines bus company, the Hopper
helps Sacramento partygoers
to go clubbing—or even club
hopping—while providing a cheap
and safe designated driver. On
Friday and Saturday nights, the

hopper gives unlimited rides for
a $10 flat fee, and visits eight
venues between 9 p.m. and
2 a.m. Wearing a Hopper wristband
also earns revelers entry to certain
clubs, access to the front of certain
lines and drink specials at participating venues. Disclaimer: There’s
often a bunch of college students on
the bus, since it picks up people near
the Sacramento State University
campus. (916) 444-7880, http://
amadorstagelines.com/sacramentocharter-bus-services/party-bus. J.M.

m
review.co
s
w
e
n
.
w
ww
Best place to find
out where all the
cowboys have gone

community. Photography, fine art
and poetry, music and comedy—the
cafe’s monthly entertainment calendar is packed with events featuring
local, regional and touring artists.
Better yet, Luna—who is usually
behind the counter, cooking—seems
to know everyone’s name and story.
Think of it as Cheers for the creative
set. 1414 16th Street, (916) 441-3931,
www.lunascafe.com. R.L.

Stoney Inn
Let’s be honest: There is something incredibly sexy about a man
wearing a flannel shirt tucked into
tight-fitting Wranglers, especially
when he owns a Ford F-150 because
he actually hauls stuff, and wears
boots because he steps in a lot of
crap. If you are wondering where
have all the cowboys gone, you
might want to try a little bar over on
Del Paso Boulevard. Every week,
Stoney Inn offers nightly drink and
food specials, live country music,
karaoke, bull rides and country line
dancing. Get there early to beat the
cover, and learn a dance or two to
impress Cowboy Hat over in the
corner. 1320 Del Paso Boulevard,
(916) 927-6023, www.stoneyinn.
com. J.R.

Best evening mix
Le Twist Tuesdays
Sam I Jam—a superior deejay name,
right? It’s like Party McFly, except
not dumb. Anyway, Sam’s jam is
the weekly Le Twist Tuesdays, an
evening of accessible but diverse
chill tunes curated by friends that
decided to put on a dance night,
because they just wanted to share
music with each other. Twist got
its start on K Street at Dive Bar—
guest deejays, live electronic acts,
mermaids—but this year, it moved
to Midtown’s LowBrau, where it’s
truly turned into one of the grid’s
more popular weeknight affairs.
The crowd is as eclectic as the tunes
blasted by founder Sam and host
deejays Adam J, Taylor Cho, Roger
Carpio and their guests. What I
like about it is that it’s probably the
only night in town where darkwave deejays spin for neon-haired
kids sipping half-liters of German
Weihenstephaner beer—with a
dash of Serge Gainsbourg. Bon
sang! Tuesday nights at LowBrau,
1050 20th Street; www.facebook.
com/letwisttuesdays. N.M.

Best place to take
your grandmother
dancing
Midtown Stomp
Kids these days. With their cat
daddies and their werk twerks,
you’d think that classy dancing
had all but died. But not so fast,
old sport! There’s still Midtown
Stomp—the ideal place to fulfill
all your jitterbugging and Lindy
Hopping desires. Each Friday
night, hundreds flock to the dance
floor to jive the night away, listen
to live music from touring swing
acts, and relive the glory days
when ducktails and poodle skirts
freely roamed the Earth. Advanced
and beginner lessons are available
for both lone drifters and groups.
Getting married? Take a weddingdance lesson, and wow the crowd
on your big day. 915 Fourth Street,
(916) 221-1500, www.midtown
stomp.com. A.K.

Best dance night
for the kids
Midtown BarFly
For years, the building that houses
Bacon & Butter (killer breakfast) and
newish dance club Midtown BarFly
was pretty much cursed. As in, “That
place sucks.” And now, in the past
couple years, the spot has come
alive and is making its stride, sunrise
to well-past sunset, with great eats
in the a.m. and ferociously popular
dancing after dark. BarFly, operated by Susan Durst—also general
manager at The Press Club a few
blocks south—has captured a cool
mix of beats enthusiasts (think the
recent drum ’n’ bass Dieselboy gig),

Best pusher of all
things eclectic
Art Luna
Established in 1983, Luna’s Café &
Juice Bar has long been a Midtown
fixture, loved not just for its
healthy take on Mexican and South
American food, but also for owner
Art Luna’s embrace of the local arts

dub and reggae, bass music, and
even rock (City of Vain and Bastards
of Young have gigged there in the
past month). Plus, goth, house and
salsa and swing-dancing nights. And,
let’s not forget that BarFly is for the
kids: It’s an 18-and-older joint, one
of the few spots like it on the grid.
1119 21st Street, www.facebook.com/
midtownbarfly. N.M.

Best place to
forget about
your night in jail
Chambers Room
Waiting for your buddy’s arraignment from last night’s drunken
shenanigans? Rough morning in
court? Whatever the reason you’re
around the Sacramento County Main
Jail, you might as well check out the
Chambers Room, perhaps the deepest
dive the central city has to offer. Oh,
and we have no assessment on the
quality of its cocktails. When you
go to the Chambers Room, you ask
Susie for the usual: a 40-ounce PBR
for $5, chilled. Save the rest of your
dough for the jukebox. 701 J Street,
(916) 446-2082. D.K.

10 wineries.
1 location.

100+ wines.

Best late-night
bite—with a show
Gogi’s Korean BBQ
Fueled by gallons of sugar-rimmed
cocktails and then left simmering in
the cramped quarters of area bars and
clubs, the mob that appears in hopes of
hailing cabs on the corner of L and 15
streets on Saturday nights exhibits all
the drama and intrigues of a weekday
telenovela. For the slightly inebriated
observer, Gogi’s Korean BBQ is the
perfect angle for observation, though
you should probably reserve judgment. Chances are, you’re as toasted
as anyone else out here as you struggle
to place your order for a cup of water
and short-rib tacos. Karma can be
a real bitch like that. 1431 L Street,
(916) 442-7333. J.B.

Helping to raise AIDS awareness in Sacramento was four-time
Olympic Gold Medalist, Greg Louganis. The event was hosted by
Capital City AIDS Fund (CCAF) on Sept. 5 at the Hyatt Regency.
All VIP guests received a free copy of Louganis’ book, “Breaking
the Surface.”

The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus (SGMC) has offered plenty
of pageantry and showmanship for Sacramento and the outlying
areas and now you can too! SGMC will be holding their final
New Member Welcome Night on Thurs., Sept. 19. So come and
try out. The SGMC will also be holding a donor appreciation
dinner on Fri. Sept. 27.

We graciously thank those individuals and businesses
who so generously contributed to the success
of Pride Media's Launch Event
held at Vizcaya.
Asilomar Convention Center
Hoppy Brewing Company
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Capital City Productions
Clear Channel
Fast Signs
Phil Rice Design
Renwood Winery
Illuminare Winery
Beemer Winery
Sassy Sweets by Monique
and the fabulous photographers,
videographers, DJ and staff at Vizcaya!
We couldn't have done it without you!

KE

1

Tuesday
September 17th
6:00 - 9:00 pm

www.RAINBOWCHAMBER.com

SACPRIDE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

A Special Advertising Supplement

Think Freely

Rainbow Festival

Over 100 podcasters and listeners attended the 5th Annual
Pride48 LGBTQ and friendly podcast gathering, Sept. 5-9 in
Las Vegas, Nev. The event, sponsored by Pride Media and held
at the Excalibur Hotel was streamed live over pride48.com to
thousands of listeners around the world. Started by Adam Burns
and Daniel J. Brewer as a way of giving an interactive forum
to podcasters and their listeners, the event featured a live chat
room and broadcasting stream.

On Aug. 29, Pride Media held their company’s launch party at
Vizcaya. With 150 in attendance, it was a great success. The
crowd consisted of community members, business owners,
youth activists, spiritual leaders and more. Everyone came
together to welcome and celebrate the unveiling of the multichannel media company, Pride Media.

Helping to raise AIDS awareness in Sacramento was four-time
Olympic Gold Medalist, Greg Louganis. The event was hosted by
Capital City AIDS Fund (CCAF) on Sept. 5 at the Hyatt Regency.
All VIP guests received a free copy of Louganis’ book, “Breaking
the Surface.”

The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus (SGMC) has offered plenty
of pageantry and showmanship for Sacramento and the outlying
areas and now you can too! SGMC will be holding their final
New Member Welcome Night on Thurs., Sept. 19. So come and
try out. The SGMC will also be holding a donor appreciation
dinner on Fri. Sept. 27.

We graciously thank those individuals and businesses
who so generously contributed to the success
of Pride Media's Launch Event
held at Vizcaya.
Asilomar Convention Center
Hoppy Brewing Company
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Capital City Productions
Clear Channel
Fast Signs
Phil Rice Design
Renwood Winery
Illuminare Winery
Beemer Winery
Sassy Sweets by Monique
and the fabulous photographers,
videographers, DJ and staff at Vizcaya!
We couldn't have done it without you!

KE

1

Tuesday
September 17th
6:00 - 9:00 pm

www.RAINBOWCHAMBER.com

SACPRIDE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

A Special Advertising Supplement

Think Freely

Rainbow Festival

Over 100 podcasters and listeners attended the 5th Annual
Pride48 LGBTQ and friendly podcast gathering, Sept. 5-9 in
Las Vegas, Nev. The event, sponsored by Pride Media and held
at the Excalibur Hotel was streamed live over pride48.com to
thousands of listeners around the world. Started by Adam Burns
and Daniel J. Brewer as a way of giving an interactive forum
to podcasters and their listeners, the event featured a live chat
room and broadcasting stream.

On Aug. 29, Pride Media held their company’s launch party at
Vizcaya. With 150 in attendance, it was a great success. The
crowd consisted of community members, business owners,
youth activists, spiritual leaders and more. Everyone came
together to welcome and celebrate the unveiling of the multichannel media company, Pride Media.

e’s chubby. he’s
furry. he’s the
international
phenomenon
who spends
his
days
sprawled
across
the
sidewalk on 14th Street between
P and Q streets.

Best

celeBrity

fat
cat
Norm Lopez

BEFORE

|

NEWS

Norm Lopez, the 26-pound
feline of the central city’s Friends
of Norm Pub Crawl fame, has
gained quite the following this
summer, thanks to a local feature
story on him picked up by the
Associated Press.
According to Norm’s human
and social-media representative,
Tyler Lopez, Norm’s Facebook
page has ballooned from around
500 friends early in the summer,
to more than 5,000. His new fans
hail from all corners of the globe:

by DAVE KEMPA

|

BEST

OF

SACRAMENTO

|

Brazil, Scotland, Malaysia,
Germany, Switzerland, China,
Italy and, most recently, France.
“I’m learning how to
spell ‘meow’ in all kinds of
languages,” said Tyler.
Tyler first got Norm in
January 2011, when the cat made
it clear to her that he preferred
to be an outdoor one. Over time,
Tyler noticed Norm harnessing
attention from neighbors, with
passersby consistently stopping
to wish him good day. That’s
when she decided to host the
first Friends of Norm barbecue celebration, which about
40 of the cat’s closest buddies
attended.
This year, however, Tyler
realized that Norm had just
too many friends for a simple
barbecue, so she created the
Friends of Norm Pub Crawl, a

A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R

celebration that took place on
August 31, from which a portion
of proceeds went to the Front
Street Animal Shelter.
The neighborhood crawl also
featured a $2 raffle that included
prizes donated from local businesses, such as The Red Rabbit
Kitchen & Bar, Dad’s Kitchen,
Magpie Cafe, and Chocolate
Fish Coffee.
Asked how the 12-year-old
fat cat is handling his newfound
fame, Tyler played it cool.
“Oh, he’s fine. He’s relaxed,”
she said. “Nothing really out of
the norm … for Norm.” www.
facebook.com/norm.lopez. Ω

VISIT SACTOBERFEST.COM
FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION
Tickets start at just $20 and include a 1/2-Litre styrene
Munich stein* with your first beer free!
Pre-sale pricing is good only through September 23rd
so get your tickets now at sactoberfest.com!
Premium and all-inclusive VIP tickets also available.
*First 1,000 through the gates
PARTNERS:

52 | SN&R | 09.12.13

But he doesn’t drain that
main vein of comedy to get
cheap laughs. Rather, the
local stand-up artist gets
material from a darker place,
then spins a story that makes
his audience laugh and wince at the
same time.

Ray Molina

One such bit involves an incident
when a chubby, young Molina had
to decide between intervening in a
violent family fight or maintaining
control of his bologna sandwich.
You’ll have to catch one of his sets to
find out which impulse wins.

by Becky Grunewald

CMY

Strap on your lederhosen, cinch up your dirndl

Best
comedian
who won’t make a dick joke

CY

t’s not that Ray Molina
is above a cRude
c ude joke.

Molina speaks in a calm, wellmodulated tone, almost mumbling at
times. That and his openness about
his travails create an intimacy with
the audience that’s lacking in many
abrasive “dudes do this, chicks do
that” comedians.
He’s no milquetoast, though. He
hosts the monthly comedy open-mic
night at Bows & Arrows (1815 19th
Street), and he can zing a hack in such
a civilized tone, that said hack may
not realize he’s been insulted.
Molina gigs frequently at MoMo
Sacramento (2708 J Street), Laughs
Unlimited (1207 Front Street), Punch
Line Comedy Club (2100 Arden
Way) and the Sacramento Comedy
Spot (1050 20th Street, Suite 130).
www.facebook.com/molinaray.
Ω

Gurr says she’s seen—and
served—it all during her long and
colorful career behind the counter.
“You have to realize, I’ve been
doing this 56 years this October,”
she told SN&R. “I’ve worked
everything from private clubs to
dive bars to hotels in all the years.”
She remembers when she
started: Vodka had achieved
hipster status on the coattails of Ian

Fleming’s 007 novels and films. nodded at Gurr, thanking her for
These days, she takes good care of warm hospitality and a ginger ale.
her regulars, many of whom live
Early in her career behind the
in the singlebar, she reguroom-occuserved
“I ask them If they’d larly
pancy hotels
b i g w i g s ,
near Henry’s.
lIke to throw up
including

“Having
legendary
In technIcolor, or
regulars
is
San Francisco
If they’d really
definitely
Chronicle
important,”
lIke to have an
columnist
she
said,
C h a r l e s
enjoyable drInk.”
gesturing to
McCabe
at
Marta Gurr
a patron who
Gino
and
bartender
goes by Buzz.
Carlo. “He’d
“Especially
have a Rainier
one who likes to straighten the ale, write the column [and] grab a
chairs and stools, and clean my cab to go to work,” she recalled,
tables for me.” Buzz smiled and “and don’t anybody dare sit in [his

by CODY DRABBLE
BEFORE

|

NEWS

|

BEST

OF

SACRAMENTO

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A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R

regular] stool at 9 o’clock in the
morning!”
After all these years, Gurr said
she’s now ready to write her own
memoir. “It would be called Last
Night, and Again This Morning:
Same Old Bullshit, Different Stool.”
Indeed, Gurr boasts very little
patience for patrons of the microbrew, craft-cocktail and wine-snob
scene. “I ask them if they’d like
to throw up in Technicolor, or if
they’d really like to have an enjoyable drink.” 1117 Ninth Street,
(916) 446-0739.
Ω

and while the Sacramento Police
Department has its own mounted
unit, too, the latter usually gets
all the media glory because of its
wider patrol range downtown. And
oh, yeah, because of that flashy
new recruit it got earlier this year
(hi, Patrick). But the CHP horses
are massive, awe-inspiring draft
horses that make great ambassadors
to the public, because they’re so
approachable to little—and grownup—girls and boys. Not to be
outdone, the unit has a gargantuanforelocked new recruit, too (hi,
Wyatt). Plus, no offense, but what
has more street cred: a cop in a
cruiser, on a bike or on a horse?
This is the Wild West, after all.
www.chp.ca.gov/depts_divs_offs/
field_ops.html. S.

@maynorchrome
It seems like anyone can take a
halfway-decent smartphone pic if
they just choose the right filter. But
Instagram user Mario Maynor has
mastered the art of all those X-Pro
II, sunrise and Nashville special
effects. With photos that largely
depict downtown Sacramento—
vertigo-inducing skyscrapers; an
abstract, Hitchcock-esque shot of
the Delta King; a dreamy Capitol
Park at sunset—Maynor puts the
city in a, dare we say it, world-class
light. http://instagram.com/maynor
chrome. R.L.

Best HIPsters
Hmong innovating politics

Best Sacramento
ambassador

The HIP shall inherit the earth.
And with good reason. Since
forming a year ago, the diverse,
highly motivated 20-somethings at
the center of Hmong Innovating
Politics have made a name for themselves by proving the establishment
naysayers wrong. Young people
can build a sustained movement.
Underrepresented minority groups
do have a place in local government. And as for lost causes? Says
who? HIP has antagonized several
goliaths in its short but active
existence—heavy-handed school
administrators and big-box retailers, among them. All the while,
HIPsters (as members refer to themselves) continue battling for the
little guy, whether it’s low-income
neighborhoods losing their schools
or small-business owners who don’t
want Walmart driving them out.
To paraphrase pop-rock god Huey
Lewis, it’s HIP to be fair. http://
hipsacramento.tumblr.com. RFH

Steve Vanoni
The man known by many simply
as “Vanoni” has been living in
Tallinn, Estonia, for years now.
But once every so often, he pops
back to Sac (looking the same as
he has forever), and we get to find
out what he’s been up to in the
land of saunas and wife-carrying.
He is building art boats in Finland,
acting in films and participating in
musical performances—much like
what he has done here. He has even
been on the cover of Eesti Ekspress,
the country’s politically independent weekly paper. I hope they
take good care of our Sacramento
treasure (or at least the beautiful
Estonian women do!). G.G.

Best inker
Jessica ann White
Maybe it’s fitting that Jessica Ann
White once flirted with a medical
career. After all, in just three years,
the Reclamare Gallery & Custom
Tattoo artist with the vivid color
palette has cultivated a reputation for such delicate line work
that the term “surgical precision”
comes to mind. It takes a steady
hand and a hummingbird’s lightness to evoke the images White
does. “Deep down, I think I always
wanted to be an artist,” the former
wedding photographer admits,
“but I didn’t think I could survive.
This is the first job I’ve ever had
that I didn’t complain about.”

Best authority
figures
california Highway patrol Mounted unit
No one wants to get pulled over by
the police. But if you’re that pizzadelivery guy on a bike on August
20, who ran a red light on K Street
and was thus chased down by two
officers atop galloping draft horses,
you have to admit, that’s more
story-worthy than being stopped
by a cop in a sedan. The California
Highway Patrol Mounted Unit
keeps the peace around the Capitol,

Best cutting remarks
Fly cuts & Styles
Toriano Mason has one large hand
wrapped around a fragrant Popeyes
chicken breast, as the other drags
a gnawing clipper up the scalp
of a Latino male customer, who’s
long since gone to his happy place.
As the young man’s meticulous
fade attests, he’s in expert hands.
Fly Cuts & Styles, on the edge of
south Sacramento’s Little Saigon
neighborhood, is the place you
come if you need a tight fade and
an ego check. It’s renowned in
the neighborhood as the shop that
cares, where older gentlemen play
chess in the back, and young kids
with good grades are rewarded with
small jobs and pocket change. It’s
also a riotous improv experience
from the moment you enter. “You
might just be sitting here getting
a whole show,” Mason says. He’s
right. The cool, gracious owner
and his outgoing barbers will cut
you up with their clippers and
good-natured humor. 6955 Stockton
Boulevard, (916) 399-8165. RFH

Best local media
personality to
have a beer with
1. Blair anthony Robertson

Best home-brewer
in the country,
that’s right!

The Sacramento Bee,
www.sacbee.com

annie Johnson

Capital Public Radio,
www.capradio.org

Earlier this summer at the biggest
home-brewing competition in
the country, Sacramento’s Annie
Johnson beat out more than 3,000
other brewers and took home the
top prize. Many consider beerbrewing a man’s world, and a
woman hadn’t won the National
Homebrewers Conference title in
30 years. Her winning beer was a
lager, which often is not the most
coveted or admired style among
beer advocates, yet she beat out
the flock to bring first place to the
River City. If you want to learn
more about home-brewing, and
maybe even bump into Johnson,
visit Brew Ferment Distill (3216
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard);
she recently batched a saison at the
facility. Cheers! N.M.

comic
relief
a
Eben E.B. Burgoon
fter a failed
attempt on
KicKstarter
last year ,

w r i t e r
Eben E.B.
Burgoon’s
new
comic-book
project, B-Squad: Soldiers of
Misfortune, is finally coming
to fruition.
“After it didn’t get funded
the first time … I told myself
I would take any kind of tax
return I get, bundle that all up,
and I’m going to back B-Squad
[myself],” Burgoon said.
Money in hand, he
approached artist Lauren
Monardo.

EbEn E.b. burgoon is
thE mastErmind bEhind
thE story of a group of
sacramEnto-basEd
cut-ratE mErcEnariEs
taking on thE dangErous
and ridiculous missions
thE a-squad won’t touch.
“I took about $3,000, went to
Lauren and was like, ‘All right,
Lauren, illustrate [this] and get
paid to do it.’”
With Monardo, who had
previously illustrated for
Cartoon Network series The
Venture Bros., at the artistic
helm, Burgoon put B-Squad on
Kickstarter again in August—
this time with more success. The
second campaign raised $6,718.

Burgoon is the mastermind behind the story of a
group of Sacramento-based
cut-rate mercenaries taking on
the dangerous and ridiculous
missions the A-Squad won’t
touch. For a perilous twist, each
issue Burgoon will kill off a
character at random, chosen by
spinning a six-sided die.
“In comic books, they
always kill characters, and then
they come back,” said Burgoon.
“They aren’t willing to just part
with them. I thought, I can just
make a ton of characters and
just start killing them off one at
a time.”
He also aims to highlight his
favorite parts about Sacramento
in the comic, including his
collaboration with Tapigami
creator and artist Danny
Scheible. Scheible will show up
as a supervillain in B-Squad’s
second issue.
“There’s a whole scene
in the second issue where the
squad is going to be chasing
Danny’s business partner Tre
[Borden] around town in, like, a
car chase,” said Burgoon.
He’ll also take on notable
local spots.
“We’re going to try to
highlight local businesses that I
like. You know, they’re going
to drive by LowBrau, Bows
& Arrows, and they are going
to drive through Midtown,”
Burgoon said. “[It will] highlight as much as I can about
what is cool about Sacramento.”
http://bsquadcomic.com.
Ω

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by Rachel leibRock

PHOTO BY RYAN DONAHUE

Best

Best larger-

than-life

daydreamers

Sofia Lacin and Hennessy
Christophel of L/C Mural & Design

s

ometimes to solve a
problem, one needs
to simply approach it
from another angle,
angle
see it in a different
light, perhaps.

That’s the tact
muralists Sofia Lacin and Hennessy
Christophel took as they brainstormed
ideas for Davis’ 4-million gallon East
Area Water Tank. For months, they
studied the water structure—the way the
sun hit its sides at various points in the
day, for example.
“It was just sitting and contemplating, ‘What’s going to create life?’”
Christophel says.
Davis, they theorized, should be
celebrated for its commitment to education, technology and the environment.
Eventually, they hit upon the answer.
“Movement creates life,” Lacin
says now.
“Same Sun,” the resulting mural that
now curves around the cement cylinder,
says as much as about the city as it does
about the women who created it. To
complete the painting, the pair built a
scale model of the tower, commissioned
work from sculptor Terrence Martin,
hired a landscape artist, and then spent
six months working from their perch on
a 32-foot scissor lift.
The resulting piece is nothing short
of epic: 1,400-square feet of swirling,
earthy colors (some applied with paint
sprayers, others applied obsessively by
hand) and an incomplete rendition of the
Latin phrase: “Sol Omnibus Lucet,” or
“the sun shines upon us all.” Now, each
year on the summer solstice, people visit
to observe as the sun shines through a
series of Martin’s commissioned metal
sculptures (positioned just so, thanks
to the landscape artist) to cast moving
shadows that render the phrase whole.

58 | SN&R | 09.12.13

“That’s important to us—to create
community interaction, to spark curiosity, to teach people about art,” Lacin says.
Lacin, 28, and Christophel, 27, have
worked together for five years, but their
history runs much deeper. The friends
met as students at Mira Loma High
School, stayed close even as they studied
art at different colleges—Lacin at UC
Davis, then Italy, and Christophel at
UC Santa Cruz—and then reconnected
when Lacin was commissioned to create
a mural for Crepeville in Davis.
Lacin enlisted her friend to help, and
since then, the pair formed its own firm,
L/C Mural & Design, and has completed
more than four-dozen murals, including
pieces for the Sacramento Bingo Center,
the Capitol Area Development Authority
and Shady Lady Saloon.
They approach each project with an
eye for minute elements and big-picture
impact. As they agonized over the bingo
mural, for example, the two women
found themselves lying in the center’s
parking lot, staring at the building until
inspiration struck. The result is a graphic
blend of letters, numbers and colors that
draws on Lacin’s affinity for bold colors
and Christophel’s passion for detail and
typography.
Ultimately, Lacin says, “we really
consider the design to be the most important piece.”
This summer, Lacin and Christophel
moved into a sprawling north Sacramento
warehouse. Now, as they take on more
work, there’s talk of inspiration, travel
and even legacy.
“We’d like to do a project in
Sacramento that has the same impact as
the Davis tower,” Lacin says.
Or, as Christophel puts it:
“We want to be seen as art leaders in Sacramento.” www.lcmuraland
design.com
Ω

Muralists Sofia Lacin (left) and Hennessy
Christophel create works that marry the
former’s love for big, bold graphics with
the latter’s keen sense of obsessive detail.

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IN PERSON—225 OF AMERICA’S BEST
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that Sacramento might
be facing a future in
which it has no single
dedicated art-house
movie screen? The
Crest Theatre closed
down its two lower-story theaters and
now only shows special-event films on
its main screen. The Tower Theatre,
meanwhile, always seems on the verge
of crumbling. Who will save us from
endless screens showing Transformers
69: Optimus Prime Gets Laid or Pixar
Presents: Dante’s Inferno?
Relax, the Varsity Theatre in Davis
is not going anywhere. Know why?
Because college students still like to
go see movies, and college professors

BEFORE

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still like to go see arty movies as a
break from those stuffy ivory towers.
The Varsity has been open in its current
location since 1950. It’s not a grand
movie palace like the Crest, but it’s
cozy and still has a few Streamline
Moderne features intact. As a bonus,
there’s a counter through which you
can buy gelato from the Icekrimski Cafe
next door. So, if you’re stressed about
getting your fix of Palestinian movies
or missing the latest empty bauble from
Sofia Coppola, drive across the causeway and breathe a sigh of relief. 616
Second Street in Davis, (530) 758-5284,
www.davisvarsity.net.
Ω

ARTS & SMARTS
writers’ picks
Best reason to drive
around in your car on
a Saturday morning
KDVS’ The Saturday Morning Folk Show
It’s Saturday, you’re up early and
you’ve got stuff to do—garage sales,
the farmers market, maybe brunch. If
you’re car-bound (no judgments), then
tune your radio dial to The Saturday
Morning Folk Show on KDVS 90.3
FM. Hosted by Robyne Fawx and
Bill Wagman, this weekly three-hour
show may be billed under the “folk”
umbrella, but its musical offerings run
wide and deep. In addition to traditional
and contemporary folk, there’s also
Celtic, bluegrass, Americana and good
ol’ fashioned country-western. Artists
encompass the familiar (the Wailin’
Jennys, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch
Mountain Boys), the more obscure
(Honeycutters, Neptune’s Car) and
pretty much everything in between.
9 a.m. to noon, www.kdvs.org. R.L.

Best virtual nostalgia
Vintage Sacramento Facebook page
Sometimes all this talk of arenas and
smart growth makes us yearn for a
simpler time. The Vintage Sacramento
Facebook page is the ideal place
to indulge such nostalgia, circa the
1950s through 1970s. Curated by Will
Peterson, a local graphic designer,
this feed relives the city’s past with
grainy, sepia-toned and Technicolor
pics depicting the likes of K Street,
the Sacramento Zoo, the Tower
Bridge and the state Capitol. No fancy
filters required here, although, incidentally, you’ll find these photos on
Instagram, too, under the user name
VintageSacto. www.facebook.com/
vintagesacramento, http://instagram.
com/vintagesacto#. R.L.

Best assembler
Christopher Bales
It seems cheap to pigeonhole assemblage artist Christopher Bales’ work
as merely steampunk: His aesthetic
is older than that. Although he sometimes uses antique and vintage materials associated with the genre, such as
metal cogs, the final product often
looks more like an altar constructed
from the rubble of a pre-Victorian
cathedral. Bales, who has been assembling these intricate sculptures since
1989, said he sources “an enormous
amount of objects”—like broken
wooden boxes, dolls, clocks, picture
frames, figurines—from his weekly
visits to flea markets and thrift stores.
When he starts a new piece, he says
he doesn’t have a preconceived notion
of what the end result will be, but

continued from page 59

following his intuition when layering
cutouts of classic paintings over etchings with skulls and religious imagery
creates enough detail for the viewer
to stay engaged but not overwhelmed.
www.christopherbales.com. S.

Best local music
trend: playing pretend
Local tribute shows
In Sacramento’s music scene’s past,
music promoters have launched nights
featuring local bands impersonating
famous bands. Both the annual Dead
Rockstars Show at Old Ironsides and
The Loft Halloween show brought
surrealistic concerts to the scene for
more than a decade. Lately, it seems
like there are more covers shows
than ever. In recent months, there
have been tributes to the Kinks, the
Replacements and even the music
from John Hughes soundtracks.
Newbies, take note: This is more
about embodying the bands, not just
learning the songs. In other words,
put a little theatricality into your
clothing and dance-move choices.
www.theoldironsides.com. G.G.

Best jugs
Charles Trejo’s giant sculptures
The jug in Charles Trejo’s driveway
stands almost as tall as his modest
one-story house in southeastern
Sacramento. Made of sand- and
salmon-hued painted concrete, this
looks like one of those classic ceramic
containers used in jug bands. The
handle is fashioned from a bicycle
tire, and the cork is a 5-gallon translucent-blue water jug (that’s right, a jug
in a jug). The behemoth was made
by Trejo—who says he’s been living
at this property since 1947—back in
1976 for his grandson, as memorialized by the black lettering on the
front: “Jesse hideout dec.111976.” But
the sculpture is actually a tool shed,
Trejo says, and sure enough, there’s a
doorway cut out in the back and yard
equipment stacked inside. Hidden
behind the shed is another huge jug,
although this one’s about half the
size of the first, and it’s also used for
storage, as a vintage red-and-white
plastic Santa Claus crammed into the
space wordlessly conveys. There’s
no lettering on this one, but this little
giant jug is clearly Santa’s hideout. S.

Best place to keep
Second Saturday
wheel good
Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen
Bicyclist haters, move on: This party
ain’t for you. Since the Sacramento

invest—but also want that investment to enhance your life—consider
looking at the Private Collections
pieces available for resale at the
Elliott Fouts Gallery in its newish
digs in Midtown. Here, the gallery
often features works by local
favorites such as Gregory Kondos,
David Gilhooly, Alan Post and even
Wayne Thiebaud. Tip: Many of the
pieces will eventually go on sale for
a reduced price if they hang around
long enough (get it, hang around?).
Put something on your walls that
will make you happy every day.
1831 P Street, (916) 736-1429, http://
efgprivatecollections.com. G.G.

Bicycle Kitchen opened in
Midtown, it’s consistently been the
best place to drop in on a Second
Saturday party and find a good time.
Admission is free, the beer flows
freely (well, if you have the cash)
and there are usually snacks. There
are also bands—which makes for a
laid-back, inexpensive outing. If you
are not into the music or can’t find
someone to talk to, cruise the bike
aisle, and look for your next ride.
1915 I Street, (916) 538-2725, http://
sacbikekitchen.org. G.G.

best artful return
on that investment
Elliott Fouts Gallery
If you have a big chunk of change
lying around that you want to

Titan Insurance Sales, superhero bobblehead and design are serv
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riving
southeast
on highway 104,
approaching
the
small town of ione,
there’s something
unexpected, maybe
even out of place,
piercing through
the canopy of trees. But this 100-foot
tall tower has been presiding as the
highest point of Preston Castle for 120
years. Although the stately red-orange
sandstone structure that looks like it
belongs on the East Coast, not rural
Northern California is now called a
castle, royalty didn’t live here: It was
a reformatory for young boys who got
in trouble with the law.

These days, the pool is filled with
ancient debris. In 1960, the state shut
down the facility and swiped the slate
roof (among other building materials)
to “upcycle” it for other projects,
resulting in years of water damage that
has washed away the interior’s plaster
and, in some areas, rotted two stories
of wood, leaving treacherous holes
where a floor used to be. The site’s
current keepers, the Preston Castle
Foundation, have taken on the task
to restore the edifice, so for $10,
the curious can tour the decay—and
see where some of the school’s staff
members were murdered. Or pony up
$100 and a dose of courage to spend
the night there.

These days, nobody lives in its
ruins other than some bats, birds and
mice that have left ample sprinklings
of their waste, but this formidable
building was once the centerpiece of
the Preston School of Industry, where
the boys learned practical skills and
made their own food and clothes.
Before opening in 1894, the youngsters were incarcerated at Folsom
or San Quentin state prisons, which
seems like it would be traumatic for
a 12-year-old. But being dragged
around in Preston’s basement-level,
bone-chillingly cold pool of lye and
bleach that was used to delouse new
wards seems also traumatic.

Despite being a supernatural jackpot, according to some folks, the building is becoming more integrated into
the community these days, with events
such as a wine tasting, a paranormal
convention, the annual Halloween
Haunt and an Old Tyme Christmas,
which makes the grand structure feel
less out of place. Hopefully, the ghosts
don’t mind sharing their space. 900
Palm Drive in Ione, (209) 256-3623,
www.prestoncastle.com.
Ω

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TRAVEL & SPORTS
writers’ picks

Best Sacramento native
to bend it like Beckham
Miguel Ángel Ponce
Since Megan Rapinoe is technically from
Redding, despite her years playing in Elk Grove,
she doesn’t count as the best soccer player from
Sacramento. That distinction belongs to Miguel
Ángel Ponce. The 24-year-old played for the
gold-medal-winning Mexican team in the 2012
Olympics. Now, the left back plays for club team
Guadalajara in the Mexican Primera Division,
and he played on the Mexican national team (El
Tri) during the Confederation of North, Central
American and Caribbean Association Football
Gold Cup. Not only did he score his first
international goal in that tournament, it cap-tied
him to Mexico, which means he can’t play for
the U.S. national team anymore. Too bad for us.
Good news for Mexico. www.chivascampeon.
com/jugadores/descripcion.php?id=67. J.M.

Best legislative branch
Capitol Park Mediterranean oak tree
It’s not the largest tree, or the most beautiful.
And it doesn’t bear fruit. But this particular
Mediterranean oak is by far (at least subjectively
speaking) the city’s most prized piece of flora
living in downtown’s Capitol Park. It’s squat
but wide, with three main branches protruding

64 | SN&R | 09.12.13

continued from page 63

from the trunk that seem to swirl around on an
axis. Take a nap under this beauty, and you’ll see
what we mean. In honor of the great tree painter
Bob Ross, we’d like to point out one “happy
little accident”: While the tree is labeld as a
Mediterranean oak, its tag also reads Quercus
macrolepis—the Latin name for the valonia oak.
Capitol Avenue and 15th Street. D.K.

Best pickup soccer game
for the young 9-to-5er
William Curtis Park
Listen, those midday scrimmages that take
place downtown in Roosevelt Park during
the week look like an out-of-this-world
great time, but how do these guys fit that
into their work schedules? We sure as
hell can’t fit that into our average day.
That’s why the pickup games in William
Curtis Park put on by the McGeorge School
of Law students and alums on Thursday
evenings and Sunday afternoons is our
pick for best pickup game in town: We can
actually attend these. Besides, who among
us wouldn’t benefit from making friends
with a few local lawyers? Curtis Drive and
Sutterville Road. D.K.

“Crush”—just “Crush” (left), thank you very much—shoots a round at Round
Corner Tavern; Allien Jones does the same—aided by a smile and a last name.

Best night spent
with the dead
Sacramento Historic City
Cemetery tours
Whether you believe in ghosts or are simply
a history buff, the Sacramento Historic
City Cemetery’s guided tours are a must.
Various treks are offered year-round, but
we’re particularly partial to the fall calendar, which includes evening Lantern Tours
in October—you know, just in time to prep
for Halloween and the Day of the Dead. On
these nights, costumed docents guide visitors through the cemetery grounds, dishing
history on the graveyard’s occupants with
tales of murder and other untimely, scandalous or noteworthy deaths. This season’s
tours take place October 18, 19, 25, and 26,
and cost $30 per person. 1000 Broadway,
(916)
448-0811,
www.oldcity
cemetery.com. R.L.

Best dive to bring your
billiards A-game to
Round Corner Tavern
Here’s how it works at the Round Corner
Tavern: If you want to shoot some stick,
write your name on the board. For the stiffest competition, try the pool table nearest

to the bar. Ball-in-hand or kitchen scratch
rules are defined by whoever owns the
table. And you never, ever make fun of
someone for bringing their own cue. And,
as if the great music, quality food and
surly Oakland Raiders fans aren’t enough,
the Deftones’ favorite bar has established
itself as one of Sacramento’s go-to spots for
quality eight-ball competition. Next time
you’re in Midtown, check it out—as long
as you’re cool with losing. 2333 S Street,
(916) 451-4682. D.K.

Best reason to Kick
it Oak Park style
The Broadway Triangle
Developers are getting a bad rap in this
town, with all the money-grubbing and
neighborhood-group hating. Luckily, Oak
Park has Ron Vrilakas, an architect who
genuinely likes the neighborhood, despite
its dangerous reputation. He’s building a
mixed-use building called The Broadway
Triangle that is located along several blocks
along the north side of Broadway, between
34th and 36th streets. It will feature residential, retail shops and a restaurant; it’s
all going into the charming former meat
market that’s kitty-corner from the Old Soul
Co. coffee shop. Vrilakas has even reached

photos by steven chea

LOOKING FOR A
MERCEDES BENZ SPECIALIST?
EXPERIENCE EXCELLENCE IN
PROFESSIONAL WORKMANSHIP AT UP TO

Best playground-themed
war veteran tribute
Grand Pup Tent of California,
Military Order of the Cootie

Amateur boxing champ James Dorris isn’t
done punishing folks. But the 37-year-old
isn’t doing it with the leather gloves that
earned him belts from the International
Amateur Boxing Association in 2010 and
2011. Instead, Dorris carves people into
mean slabs of muscle by running a “warrior
training” boot camp in the foothills where
he grew up. Combining his boxing and
mixed-martial arts workouts with the
training he undergoes as a Folsom Police
Department officer, Dorris makes sure the
clients who take his classes at The Edge in
Martell leave hurting. In a good way. “My
philosophy is to train people as if they’re
training for a fight,” he said. Dorris built his
following by making sure each session is
different from the last. Clients, he promises,
“will never see the same workout.” They
will, however, see gains with the pain.
(916) 220-9211, www.theedgestrengthand
training.com. RFH

We also service most imports

y
Hw

James Dorris at The Edge

THE PRICE OF THE DEALERSHIP
5

Best puke-inducing
workout

organizations. According to the California
Cooties’ website, the Veterans of Foreign
Wars’ charitable order was named for lice
in the trenches of French battlefields during
World War I, which “were known to bite
the soldiers at just the right time to save the
soldier’s lives” by making them duck away
from incoming shells. Luckily, your visit
with the cooties doesn’t have to involve
post-traumatic stress disorder; just stop by
the semicircular stone bench located near N
and 14th streets to enjoy some sunshine and
pay homage to this country’s war veterans.
www.california-cooties.org. C.D.

y
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out to the neighbors to ask what kind of
businesses they’d like to see as part of the
project. May all neighborhoods be blessed
with this kind of infill. www.thebroadway
triangle.com. G.G.

1/2

Best awesome bike
that actually fits
Ikon Cycles
Stop puttering around on the bike trail with
that decades-old clunker. You know, the one
that makes you look like Harry Henderson on
a unicycle? Visit Adrian Moore at Ikon Cycles
on J Street, schedule an appointment for a
fitting, then have him order you a bike that
actually fits. And fits your needs. Trust me,
Moore’s expertise makes biking in Sacramento
more awesome than it already was. Ikon is a
tiny Midtown shop, but Moore’s one-on-one
consultation is unequaled at any big ol’ bike
shop—and he flat-out doesn’t pressure you to
buy a bike. Bonus! Yet you’ll want to purchase
one—whether it’s a racing Fuji or a chill city
one-speed—because owning a nice bike that’s
not too small or doesn’t get a flat every two
weeks is worth all the gas money you’ll be
saving times 100. 2318 J Street, (916) 441-1122,
www.ikoncycles.com. N.M.

Located under a California fan palm tree
inside of Capitol Park, there’s a square
sign bearing the inscription “Grand Pup
Tent of California Military Order of the
Cootie.” Part of the California Veterans
Memorial, it’s just one of dozens of similar stones donated by charitable veterans

“The person of steady wisdom, having subdued all
the senses, becomes fixed in Brahman, the Supreme.
His or her wisdom is well-established whose senses
are under control.”
– Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Lord) Chap. 2.61

68

|

SN&R

|

09.12.13

THINK FREE.

Sacramento
Vedanta
Reading
Group

September picks by SHOKA

TV theme show
Stuart Gold’s father was not interested in
repairing the family’s television sets—even
though by trade, he was a television repairman. But watching the fuzzy and distorted
screens as a kid in the 1950s and ’60s left a
mark on young Gold, and so he began making prints, drawings and paintings of those
pixilated moments in a series that began in
the late ’70s.
Gold’s fascination with this TV theme has
endured over the decades, and this month,
the Grass Valley-based artist’s solo show at
Blue Moon Gallery displays work he created
from 2011 to 2013, and it’s some of the best
of his series. His paintings of the “split seconds when the image is disrupted” are mesmerizing, because their lack of expected
visual clarity lends insight to the process of
perception.
Gold said that “interrupted or maladjusted
commercial TV images, purposefully or randomly frozen, could be a remarkable source
of imagery,” and with the way he composes
these moments, they certainly are.

Your grandma’s style
Painting over old, staid thrift-store paintings is not a new idea—but
it’s not bad idea, especially when it’s done well.
In Gallery 21Ten’s Loft Gallery’s group show called Thrift
Monsters, a leviathan peeks through the surface of an otherwise
sunset-tinged, peaceful lake in autumn, and a furry monster with an
underbite creeps behind a traditional still life of classy vessels and
gleaming fruit, stealing a single grape in between his talons.
Call it upcycling, lowbrow or whatever: These quiet relics have
been transformed into playful tableaus. So, let’s all thank the
artists—including Laurelin Gilmore, Lisa Rosenstreich and Marjorie
Methven—for mercifully defacing Grandma’s discarded rumpusroom décor into something enjoyable to look at again.
“Fetch” by Gary Dinnen, ceramic.

This man’s best friend
It was once not uncommon to see Gary Dinnen walking swiftly down
a Midtown sidewalk with a freckled roan dog nearby in his orbit,
both smiling. The artist’s longtime companion was also his muse,
and it’s hard to not see Bell’s influence and likeness in his many
ceramic sculptures of fauve, (and often life-size) funk-art dogs. His
solo show at Adamson Gallery this month, titled Wish You Were
Here, is dedicated to the memory of his beloved furry pal.

pregnant wife Lindsey (Wilton and Altholz),
is negotiating with lawyers and preservationists about renovating the home. Plenty of
unpleasantries ensue.
Despite the passage of half a century, we may
have become more aware of our prejudices, but
we certainly haven’t transcended them. People
hide behind words and cloak their fears. But
racism that comes out of fear is still racism.
Ω

The characters in Clybourne Park talk, but they don’t
listen. Bruce Norris’ bitingly funny and
provocative satire, which won the 2011
by
Jim Carnes
Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a 2012 Tony
Award, too, opened with an impressively
brave and intelligent production by Capital
Stage. The play deals with the uncomfortable
subjects of racism, fear and how the “liberal”
middle-class deals—or doesn’t deal—with
them. Michael Stevenson directs an outstanding cast with staccato speed to match the
rapid rhythms of Norris’ script.

+++++

A PERFECT MOVIE!”
“

A PURE GEM… GRACED
WITH SPARKLING ACTING.”
“

SHAILENE WOODLEY IS MARVELOUS
AND MILES TELLER IS EXCELLENT.”

“Welcome to the
neighborhood.”

“

A LOVE STORY LOADED WITH
POWER AND FEELING.
I COULDN’ T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.”
SALON
FROM THE WRITERS OF (500) DAYS OF SUMMER

The play is set in the same Chicago
house where the black Younger family from
Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the
Sun was about to break that community’s
color barrier. Act one begins at that moment
in 1959 before the Youngers (who don’t
appear here) move in. Norris focuses on
Russ and Bev, the white family (played
by Jonathan Rhys Williams and Shannon
Mahoney) vacating the house to move to
the suburbs. Francine (Atim Udoffia), the
couple’s black maid, helps with the packing, but the work is interrupted by visitors:
Jim (Dan Fagan), the local minister; Albert
(Beethovan Oden), Francine’s husband; and
most significantly—and unpleasantly—by
Karl (Aaron Wilton) and his pregnant, deaf
wife, Betsy (Stephanie Altholz). Karl is the
same repulsive neighborhood representative
in Raisin who tried to persuade the Youngers
not to move into the house; now he tries to
pressure the sellers into changing their minds.
Act two is set in the same home 50 years
later, when the neighborhood, now predominantly African-American, is undergoing
gentrification, and a white couple, Steve and

4

How to Succeed in
Business Without
Really Trying

Everything old is new again, it seems: The
nostalgia for the Mad Men era has led to a
Broadway resurrection of this 1961 gem, and
now, Runaway Stage Productions produces
an energetic and warm version of How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying—
an only semisatirical look at the world of
business.
Yes, it does turn out that how you present
yourself counts in the corporate world, and
who you know turns out to be worth more
than what you know. While some things have
changed—a handful of female executives, a
little more workplace diversity—songs like
“A Secretary Is Not a Toy” are still relevant.
This production benefits from the
charisma and energy of David Holmes as
J. Pierrepont Finch, the window washer who
uses a how-to book to move up from the
mailroom to the penthouse in a mega-corporation. He’s in almost every scene—usually at
its center—and certainly Holmes works much
harder than his character does.
Finch’s love interest, Rosemary (played
by the tuneful Gillian Tarkington), is a
secretary who longs for marriage and a house
in New Rochelle—even though she knows
how isolating that life will be. Great supporting characters include Levi Fuentes as Bud
Frump, the boss’ scheming nephew; Cassie
March as Hedy LaRue, the boss’s mistress;
and Brent Null as the bombastic boss.
Directed and choreographed by Darryl
Strohl, the actors dance with enough energy
to strain the seams on those suits and dresses.
While still plagued with sound difficulties
in a few spots, that’s offset by the dance
sets, the gorgeous period costuming by Gina
Coyle, and the resident orchestra, under the
direction of Deann Golz.
—Kel Munger

Self-righteous Brooke
Wyeth (Dana Brooke),
carts her tell-all memoir to her
parents’ home in Palm Springs,
hoping for a blessing from them,
but gets a blasting instead. The
play combines conflicting family
dynamics with blunt sarcastic
humor, which puts some fun in
dysfunctional. Talented cast, including Brooke and Joan Grant,
who create caustic chemistry as
mother and daughter. Th, F, 8pm;

“An argument a day keeps
the doctor away,” says Abe
Dreyfus (Rodger Hoopman). At 73
and in his curmudgeonly prime,
Abe is honest to a fault about his
love for his daughter Alice (Julie
Bock) and his tolerance of her
husband Jerry (Walt Thompson),
with whom he now lives. When
Jerry’s mother Mildred (Monique
McKisson) loses her home,
belongings and pet bird to a house
fire, she moves in with the young
couple, too. Insanity ensues.

Ovation Stage’s production is compact, intense
and intimate due to the tight
storyline, a cohesive cast and
the small 30-seat Three Penny
Theatre. It all takes place in the
New York apartment where a
prideful and resentful Sarah
(Beth Edwards) is brought home
by her supportive boyfriend
James (James Andrew) to recover from her massive injuries.
The conversations run the gamut
of the moral dilemmas facing
journalists, the righteousness
of individual and job choices,
and the escapism and long-term
impact demanding careers can
have on personal lives. F, Sa 8pm;
Su 2pm. Through 9/15. $15-$18.
Ovation Stage at the Three Penny
Theatre in the R25 Arts Complex,
1723 25th St.; (916) 448-0312;
www.ovationstage.com. P.R.

1
FOUL

2
FAIR

3
GOOD

Featuring

Live music • Free refreshments

Music by LALO GUERRERO,
DANIEL VALDEZ and LUIS VALDEZ

Second Saturday, Sept. 14
Open 4:30–8:30pm
3431 4th Ave, Sac, 95817

ARE YOU A HEALTHY
WOMAN AGE 20-28?

5

Edgar Allan Poe would’ve probably
enjoyed to have a film night dedicated
to him that was scheduled on Friday
the 13th. And that’s exactly what
he’ll get this Friday, September 13,
at the Crest Theatre as part of the
Sacramento Film & Music Festival.
Sponsored by the Sacramento Public
Library and the Capital Film Arts Alliance and titled The Poe Project, this
special event will feature screenings
of 11 locally made films, the release of
a new collection of Poe’s works from
the Sacramento Public Library’s I
Street Press, a Poe-themed fashion challenge with the Capitol Indie
This is the best smile Poe could
Collective, and an original classimuster for this daguerreotype
cal composition by Richard Altenbach
taken by Edwin Manchester in 1848.
inspired by Poe’s work. Can’t get enough
dark humor and morbid wit? Poe-related
activities and events will continue throughout October at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria (visit www.saclibrary.org for more information on
those). Friday, September 13; 5:30 p.m.; $10. Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street;
www.sacfilm.com.

Austenland is the movie equivalent of a beach read, a
digestible distraction that demands little effort
and puts forth even less. It’s a film that should
by
Daniel Barnes only be watched while engaging in a secondary
activity, like folding laundry or untangling
Christmas lights. Although immersed in her
universe, Austenland requires no intimacy with
the work of Jane Austen. Look for your deeply
embedded Mansfield Park references elsewhere.
The undeniably adorable Keri Russell
stars as Jane, a movie-messy, 30-something
bachelorette obsessed with all things Austen,
especially the aloof Mr. Darcy from Pride and
Prejudice. Her apartment is draped in Austen
kitsch, including a life-size cutout of Colin
Firth as Darcy, and her out-of-control “hobby”
has driven a wedge in all of her real-life
relationships.

2

“Call me when the
Brontë sisters get
a theme park.”

VISIT

WWW.GOFOBO
.COM/RSVP
AND ENTER

SNRBM2N

FOR YOUR
CHANCE TO
WIN TWO ADMIT
ONE PASSES TO
THE SPECIAL
SCREENING
TONIGHT

THURSDAY,
SEPTEMBER 12
IN SACRAMENTO.

1
Poor

2
Fair

3
Good

4
THIS FILM IS RATED PG-13. PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED. SOME MATERIAL MAY BE INAPPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 13.
Theatre is overbooked to ensure a full house. Passes received through this promotion do not guarantee admission and must be surrendered upon demand. Seating is on a ﬁrst come,
ﬁrst served basis EXCEPT FOR MEMBERS OF THE REVIEWING PRESS. No one will be admitted without a ticket or after the screening begins. All federal, state and local regulations
apply. A recipient of tickets assumes any and all risks related to use of ticket and accepts any restrictions required by ticket provider. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Screen Gems,
Sacramento News & Review, Allied-THA, Gofobo.com and their afﬁliates accept no responsibility or liability in connection with any loss or accident incurred in connection with use of
a prize. Tickets cannot be exchanged, transferred or redeemed for cash, in whole or in part. We are not responsible if, for any reason, winner is unable to use his/her ticket in whole or
in part. Not responsible for lost, delayed or misdirected entries. All federal and local taxes are the responsibility of the winner. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary.
Participating sponsors their employees and family members and their agencies are not eligible. NO PHONE CALLS!

After getting dumped by the latest in a
series of disinterested boyfriends, Jane trades
in her life savings for a vacation to Austenland,
an all-inclusive country estate and fantasy
resort where guests and staff role-play as
Austen-esque characters in full costume. The
central conceit of Austenland is a lot like that
of Westworld, the 1973 film about a futuristic
theme park—except with corsets instead of
cowboy boots, human actors instead of robots,
and only the audience’s brain cells are brutally
murdered.
Jane goes to Austenland to experience grandeur and opulence, but her lowest-tier vacation
package forces her into the role of a penniless
ward. Every guest at Austenland is promised a
nonsexual “romantic experience” by the austere
company head (Jane Seymour). The guileless
Jane forms a true-to-character instant dislike
of the actor playing the arrogant Mr. Darcy
figure (JJ Feild), and begins a flirtation with the
resort’s sweet handyman (Bret McKenzie from
Flight of the Conchords).
Russell’s effortless likeability in the lead
gives the film more juice than it deserves, and
the always amusing Jennifer Coolidge offers
game support as a fellow guest and ally to Jane.
Usually confined to bit parts, Coolidge mines so

much material out of her vulgar-dimwit routine,
it borders on environmentally irresponsible. It is
always amusing to hear the pneumatic Coolidge
blare naughty non sequiturs in that inimitable
baby-doll fishwife voice, but a little bit of her
goes a long way.
Clearly, Austenland was not designed for my
demographic, but lest I be accused of male bias,
let’s just consider the gender-opposite film. It
would probably star Vince Vaughn and Owen
Wilson as middle-aged horn dogs who attend a
fantasy frat house resort, and it would also be
a bad movie (notes to self: Pitch this idea to a
studio executive posthaste, make millions of
dollars, learn how to snort cocaine).
This particular bad movie is co-written and
directed by Jerusha Hess, the creator (along
with husband Jared Hess) of such diminishing
returns as Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre
and the genuinely contemptible Gentlemen
Broncos. Although Austenland mostly moves
to the expected beats of a contemporary
romantic comedy, Hess can’t resist smearing
her auteur stamp all over the film.
How else to explain the tone-deaf gags
about sheep-eyeball consumption, chamberpot usage and Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” in an
otherwise innocuous love story? Every time
Austenland starts to build up affection for the
characters, Hess indulges in some juvenile
low comedy. At one point, a character lounges
poolside wearing a giant, flame-painted
cowboy hat, seemingly for no other reason than
the fact that giant, flame-painted cowboy hats
are funnier than normal hats.

Keri Russell’s effortless
likeability in the lead
gives the film more juice
than it deserves.
On the other hand, the tonal jolts are the
most notable thing about Austenland, and without them, I’d be using this space to complain
about an absence of surprises amid the barrage
of rom-com clichés. But the goofiness of
Austenland quickly becomes pandering, especially in the overuse of incongruous ’80s pop
songs on the soundtrack. By the end, the movie
reeks of desperation and rewrites—there are at
least three endings and two in-credits “stinger”
sequences in the last 10 minutes.
A smart and funny movie about prolonged
adolescence and wish fulfillment is buried
somewhere deep in Austenland, but Hess was
probably too busy sound-mixing fart noises to
dig it out. As it stands, Austenland is a dumb but
generally harmless watch, and this rating could
even be bumped up a notch if movie theaters
would permit patrons to bring in their unfolded
laundry and tangled Christmas lights.
Ω

by daniel barnes & JiM lane

3

Blue Jasmine

A snooty New York socialite (Cate
Blanchett), left penniless when her
crooked financier husband (Alec Baldwin) goes
to prison, moves in with her working-class sister
in San Francisco (Sally Hawkins). Critic Walter
Kerr once wrote, “Neil Simon didn’t have an idea
for a play this year, but he wrote one anyway.”
Well, Woody Allen didn’t have an idea for a movie,
so he did a riff on A Streetcar Named Desire. But
Allen never gets the colored lights going. The role
of Stanley Kowalski is drained of sexual energy
and divvied up between the sister’s ex-husband
(Andrew Dice Clay) and present boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale); without that conflict, Streetcar
lacks a core, and one is missing here. The whole
is less than the sum of its parts, though some
parts (especially Blanchett’s performance) are
well worth watching. J.L.

2

“I hope this leads to
one of those ‘Previously
on ...’ TV gigs.”

Closed Circuit

There couldn’t be a better time than
right now for Closed Circuit to capture
the public’s attention, since the plot is a veritable scrapbook of recent newspaper headlines.
Beyond the topical trappings, though, this is
an unimaginative post-9/11 “legal thriller” in
the John Grisham mold. Closed Circuit opens
and closes on a mosaic of black-and-white
security camera images, but in between, the
themes of omnipresent surveillance are only
used as hoary plot devices. Stars Rebecca Hall
and Eric Bana lack the credibility to play trial
lawyers, and even worse, they lack chemistry.
Without competent leads, Closed Circuit relies
on its supporting cast to supply the gravitas,
including Jim Broadbent as an attorney general
whose buttoned-down politeness conceals a
passive-aggressive evil. Unfortunately, after a
passable third act, the film goes 10 minutes too
far in pursuit of a tidy ending. D.B.

1

3

The affable In a World … is the first feature written and directed by
actress Lake Bell, who also stars as a voice-over artist struggling
to break into an industry dominated by men, including her legendary father.
Although In a World … won Bell a screenwriting award at the Sundance Film
Festival, what’s more compelling is how well this low-key comedy exhibits her
charms as an actress. Heretofore stuck in character roles, Bell proves that
she is a viable and appealing lead, salty and sullen, yet utterly likable. This is
basically a nice business-card movie that allows Bell to display a range of skills,
with a Hollywood-insider hook designed to appeal to influential industry folks.
Still, the film’s unsteady tone and meandering narrative are telltale signs of a
first-time filmmaker’s learning curve, and the stakes in the third-act payoff
are excessively low. D.B.

Getaway

2

A disgraced race-car diver (Ethan
Hawke) is forced to steal a car and do
the bidding of an unseen voice (Jon Voight)—including kidnapping the owner of the car (Selena
Gomez). Written by Sean Finegan and Gregg
Maxwell Parker and directed by Courtney
Solomon, here’s a movie for people who think
The Fast and the Furious franchise has gotten
too low-key and realistic, its plots too mundane
and slice-of-life, with too much dialogue and not
enough car chases. In fact, they spare no effort
to come up with no plot whatsoever and no more
character than it takes to fill the front seat of a
car. Certainly, there’s not enough to keep Hawke
and Gomez busy, and both of them should have
known better. Why did they take the gig? It must
have been for the free trip to Bulgaria, where
the movie was inexplicably filmed. J.L.

2

2

An Acapulco beach bum (Eugenio Derbez,
who also directed and co-wrote the
script) has a baby girl dumped on him from one
of his flings, so, naturally, he moves to Hollywood
and works as a stuntman to raise the kid, while
refusing to learn English. When the child is 7
(and now played by Loreto Peralta), her mother
(Jessica Lindsey) returns and wants custody.
This Spanish-language comedy’s original title
translates as “Returns Not Accepted,” so the
English subtitles may be no more accurate than
that; what comes through is a sloppy melange of
unpersuasive melodrama, amateurish mugging,
unfunny comedy and mawkish sentimentality, a
sort of boneheaded Kramer vs. Kramer. Derbez,
a major star in Latin America, has all the personal charm and comedic gifts of Italy’s Roberto
Benigni—i.e. none whatsoever. J.L.

It almost seems unfair to assess Brian
Hooks’ comedy atrocity Laughing to the
Bank on the same level as other theatrical releases, since it has the narcissism and production values of a home movie. This is ostensibly
The Hangover on a budget, as director-star
Hooks is forced to relive a wild Las Vegas
weekend with a couple of dopey thugs, but it’s
just an excuse to trot a series of desperately
unfunny sketches and would-be beloved characters. Laughing to the Bank’s release was
delayed since 2011, so that partially explains
the decade-old To Catch a Predator references, but good luck rationalizing the script
(sample witticism: “You can be a dick holder …
that’s like a cup holder, except instead of holding cups, you hold dicks.”). Undaunted by the
evidence, Hooks’ entourage spends much of the
film immortalizing him as an under-recognized
comic genius. D.B.

|

NEWS

Planes

A lowly crop-dusting airplane (voice by
Dane Cook) cherishes an ambition to
participate in an around-the-world air race,
and by a combination of pluck and luck, he
succeeds. Yes, it’s Turbo with planes instead
of snails, but it’s also an unimaginative rehash
of every other follow-your-dream movie, with
little more than some stunning animation
to distinguish it from all the rest. The story
trudges through its predictable formula
with excruciating precision, hitting every
beat right on schedule. With no suspense or
surprises, we have to pass the time by trying
to identify the celebrity voices (which include
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, John Cleese and Cedric the
Entertainer) and contemplating the inevitable
Disney theme-park attraction. At least the ride
will be over more quickly. J.L.

Laughing to the Bank

BEFORE

Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Lee Daniels’ The Butler was “inspired by
true events” much like John Hinckley
Jr. was “inspired” by The Catcher in the Rye.
Actually, it’s adapted from a Washington Post
article about an African-American butler who
served at the White House during some of the
most turbulent times in recent history. Daniels
expands that idea into a Gump’s-eye view of the
civil-rights era that is Oscar chum at its most
pandering. Forest Whitaker, looking like an audioanimatronics figure at Disneyland Presents
Great Moments With Lee Daniels’ The Butler,
plays Cecil Gaines, son of a murdered cotton
farmer reborn through servitude. Whitaker is
strong, as usual, but the U.S. presidents are
portrayed in a series of distracting cameos by
Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Alan
Rickman as Ronald Reagan. D.B.

Instructions Not Included

1

In a World ...

3

Riddick

Vin Diesel is back as the formidable
interplanetary fugitive first seen in Pitch
Black (2000) and The Chronicles of Riddick
(2004). This time, he’s been left for dead on
a sun-blazed world inhabited by predatory
monsters; he finds his way to a deserted
outpost and broadcasts his presence into
space, planning to steal a ship and escape
when bounty hunters show up to capture
him. Writer-director David Twohy plops us
down in the middle of his story and leaves us
hanging at the end, waiting for Episode 4. In
between, the movie is a harsh, gritty pleasure,
straightforward and tautly suspenseful, and
showcasing Twohy’s knack for portraying truly
alien worlds. Jordi Mollà, Matt Nable and Katee
Sackhoff play three of the bounty hunters, and
there’s a cameo by Karl Urban as Riddick’s
nemesis from Chronicles. J.L.

|

BEST

OF

5

The Spectacular Now

A hard-drinking high-school party boy
(Miles Teller), recently dumped by his
girlfriend (Brie Larson), strikes up a friendship,
then a tentative romance, with a classmate
(Shailene Woodley). He barely knows her, but
she knows him well—by reputation. Will she pull
him up to her level, or will he drag her down to
his? Just when you’re tired of teen rom-coms,
along comes one like this to redeem the whole
debased genre. Written by Scott Neustadter
and Michael H. Weber (from Tim Tharp’s novel)
and directed by James Ponsoldt, this is the
most charming such movie since Cameron
Crowe’s Say Anything, which was released 24
years ago. (Not surprisingly, Neustadter and
Weber also wrote the equally charming (500)
Days of Summer.) Teller and Woodley have
great chemistry, and rightly shared a special
acting award at the Sundance Film Festival. J.L.

3

full auto
machine gun
try a

• Full-autos, semi-autos

We’re the Millers

A small-time pot dealer (Jason Sudeikis),
having been strong-armed into smuggling
tons of weed in from Mexico, hires a stripper
(Jennifer Aniston), a teen runaway (Emma
Roberts) and the dweeb next door (Will Poulter)
to masquerade as a straight-arrow family and
avoid suspicion at the border. The writers’ credit
(Sean Anders, Steve Faber, Bob Fisher, John
Morris) is studded with numerous “ands” and
“&s,” indicating rewrites without collaboration,
and the unevenness shows in story sags and digressions. On the plus side, the whole thing plays
to Sudeikis and Aniston’s comic strengths, and
they have good chemistry. The humor is often
raunchy (watch out for that spider-bite scene!),
but most of the gags hit the target, and some hit
the bull’s-eye. Rawson Marshall Thurber directs
with a game (if at times unsteady) hand. J.L.

3

• large quantities oF
ammunition available
• casH For used guns
• bacHelor and
bacHelorette parties
• beginners and
proFessionals welcome

The World’s End

A 40-year-old boy who never grew up
(Simon Pegg) dragoons four pals (Nick
Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan) into returning to their hometown
and repeating the epic pub crawl they got too
drunk to finish back in their youth. The others
have all moved on with their lives, but his enthusiasm brooks no denial. Still, all misgivings
seem justified when they find the old town eerily changed. The script by Pegg and director
Edgar Wright begins as a fast-paced British
working-class comedy, with jokes coming
almost too fast to catch. Then, it suddenly
(and seamlessly) morphs into a latter-day
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with our boys
battling an invasion of passive-aggressive
aliens. It’s high old fun, though it plays as a
bit too much of a rehash of Pegg and Wright’s
Shaun of the Dead. J.L.

For 40 years, French guitarist Richard Pinhas has been
revered worldwide as a musical innovator,
most famously with his 1970s-era band
by
Heldon, and also as a pioneer in the use of
Dennis Yudt
electronics in rock music. After an early fascination with Jimi Hendrix and, later, Robert
Fripp—especially the latter’s 1973 album with
Brian Eno, (No Pussyfooting)—Pinhas developed a singular style in rock, jazz and, more
recently, the experimental sounds on his latest
record, Desolation Row. Here, Pinhas finds
himself in the company of some of music’s
most cutting-edge electronic and noise artists,
including Oren Ambarchi and Noël Akchoté.

TACO TUES
$1 TACOS, $2 CORONAS, 2–8PM
WEDNESDAY

OPEN MIC
SIGN-UPS AT 7:30PM
THURSDAY

KARAOKE
@ 7:30PM
HAPPY HOUR
MON-FRI 3PM-7PM

UPCOMING SHOWS

OPEN FOR LUNCH &
DINNER 7 DAYS A WEEK
DOORS OPEN AT 11:30

Food a
and Drink.
(need we ssay more?)

No basic guitar
riffs here—Richard
Pinhas pushes sound
to new places.

TTotal Domination IPA
+ Backyard BBQ
= Serious Business

NINKASIBREWING.COM • BREWED IN EUGENE, OR
76 | SN&R | 09.12.13

You’ve interviewed and collaborated
musically with the science-fiction writer
Norman Spinrad, whose books often
present a vision of a dystopian future.
He’s considered a huge influence on
you—the name Heldon comes from a Spinrad
novel: Is your music an extension of that?
Spinrad is a very old friend. He introduced
me to Philip K. Dick, whom I met in [Los
Angeles] in 1974. Norman has played or
“sung” on Heldon albums and my solo albums
from the ’80s—I treated his
voice via my Vocoder! At the
beginning of Heldon, I was
very involved in science fiction
books, and in philosophy and
literature in general. So Dick
and Spinrad’s ideas influenced
me a lot in the way of my
comprehension of the world,
ideas and nature. My music
is not an extension of science
fiction, but was once upon a
time very connected to a kind
of sci-fi—let’s say the political
[themes] that Dick and Spinrad
wrote about.
PHoto By PAtRiCk Jelin

Richard Pinhas
performs with
Barry Cleveland
on Wednesday,
September 18,
at 8 p.m. at
Bows & Arrows, at
1815 19th Street; cover
is $10. Practice and
Ross Hammond are
also on the bill. Visit
www.richard-pinhas.com
for more info.

He is also well-regarded as a philosopher,
author and lecturer. Pinhas, who took part in
the 1968 student uprisings at France’s Paris
Sorbonne University, holds a doctorate in
philosophy and once studied under noted
French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.
Pinhas, who performs Wednesday,
September 18, at Bows & Arrows with Bay
Area guitarist Barry Cleveland, recently
answered questions via email for SN&R to
wax philosophical on sci-fi, musical connections and improvisation.
How is the tour going? Met any future
collaborators or heard opening acts that
you’ve enjoyed?
Depends on which tour you are talking about.
Last June, I finished a series of great gigs in
Japan with Merzbow, Yoshida Tatsuya and
Keiji Haino, then [played] Spain’s [Sónar
Festival] with the Pascal Comelade [b]and.
After the [United States tour], I will play at
[an electronic festival] in Portugal and then

What do you look for in
a collaborator?
I always think that music is
a connection between brains,
souls and the feelings of
people (musicians). I do solo
recordings but I am a lot more
involved with live musicians
and ensembles. I navigate
between encounters and feelings that can be
very different at this or that period of my life.
I mainly want to change not only the music,
but also the relationship between musicians.
Your upcoming show in Sacramento will be
played as a duo with the equally adventurous
guitarist Barry Cleveland. Will it be improvised,
and what can people expect to hear from
Richard Pinhas in 2013 that’s different from
what you did 20 years ago?
Well, I don’t know yet! I am very pleased and
very aware of what can happen with Barry and
it will be a complete experience because we’ve
never [played] a duet together and I will like
this a lot, I have a great respect for Barry and
hope that we will do something like one plus
one equals “x”—but not “two” … I believe in
invention and in spontaneity.
Ω

Rapper spurns Sac,
bridges get burned
A Keef beef: Rapper Chief Keef
burst onto the rap scene in the
summer of 2012 with the rough,
unsophisticated video for his song
“I Don’t Like.” The lyrics are a
simplistic list of “shit” that Keef
“don’t like,” such as snitches and
“sneak dissers.” The video, which
has more than 7 million hits,
features Keef and his crew in the
room of a janky house, smoking
copious amounts of weed and
getting progressively drunker.
A majority of his posse sport
short, face-obscuring dreads like
their leader, sagging True Religion
jeans, and about half the guys are
shirtless. Keef was only 16 when it
was shot, and in the video he dances
shoulder to shoulder with other
scrawny, tattooed adolescents. The
aggression and youthful exuberance
bursting from the screen is mesmerizing, with an undeniably dark edge.
Keef is part of the Chicago
drill scene, which creates music
that’s characterized by sounding
repetitive, raw and grim. Many of
the songs are produced by Young
Chop, who is only 19. His production uses skittish trap-influenced
beats and keyboard refrains that
recall horror-movie scores. The
dark tone of drill reflects the ongoing violence on the South Side of
Chicago, and perhaps fuels it.
Not long after the release of
“I Don’t Like,” Kanye West released
a remix version, which currently
has more than 32 million hits on
YouTube, and even tapped Keef to
appear on a track of his new album
Yeezus. In a characteristic move,
Keef later burned his bridges by
tweeting, “Kanye West ain’t do
shit for me.” He also rejected
50 Cent’s offer of mentorship.
He’s also tangled with the law
numerous times recently for
nonpayment of child support,
ditching out on a show and more.
This is all leads up to the
fact that at the last minute, Keef
canceled his show, which was slated
for September 8, at Ace of Spades.
He can now count Sacramento as a
city where his bridges are burned.
It’s not the first city he’s treated
this way; in August, Keef was
ordered to pay $230,000 for skipping out on a London show.
As a disgruntled crowd gathered
for refunds, many of those waiting
called him an “idiot.” Quite a few
ticket buyers had come to watch
local rapper Clyde Moore’s opening
BEFORE

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NEWS

Prediction:
Chief Keef will
continue to skip
out on obligations
and squander
his money on
Bedazzled jeans.
Specifically, there are three
female artists releasing music
within this typically misogynistic
rap scene who I’ve been listening
to: Sasha Go Hard, Tink and Katie
Got Bandz. All three have released
numerous mix-tapes but don’t have
any official releases yet. Sasha Go
Hard’s “Nutty World” and Katie
Got Bandz’s wittily titled “Drillary
Clinton” dropped within the last
several weeks. Each of these artists
has more talent and spark than the
humorless Chief Keef. And all of
them have a fraction of the visibility that Chief Keef has—although
Sasha and Katie have gotten some
buzz lately.
A few predictions: Keef will
continue to skip out on obligations
and alienate other famous rappers
and producers, squander his money
on Bedazzled jeans, and end up in
prison for at least a short term at
some point.
Keef disappointed his
Sacramento fans and screwed over
a local rapper.
That’s that shit I don’t like, nah.
—Becky Grunewald

BEST

OF

best

The AreA’s BeSt ComiCs
eve ry Frid Ay @ 8pm

set, which meant that the beloved
local skater from the Lurk Hard
crew missed out on a chance to
perform his biggest show to date.
I was in Los Angeles for
the weekend, and when I heard
about the late-announced show,
I changed my plane ticket so
that I could make the set. I know
that everything I’ve written so
far probably has you scratching
your head as to why I would do
that, but I actually am (or was) a
Chief Keef fan. He’s undeniably
charismatic, and his songs are
earworms. Plus, he’s the first drill
artist I’d heard. Still, now that I’m
more acquainted with the sound
and Young Chop’s production,
other artists have eclipsed him on
my playlist.

Influenced by Jamaican ska pioneers like the
Skatalites and the Upsetters—which later
formed the nucleus of Bob Marley’s backing
band, the Wailers—the Slackers formed in
the early ’90s. This New York-based band
SKA avoids the happy up-tempo clichés
the ska genre is known for, and
instead weaves reggae, soul and jazz in with
a noticeable garage-rock influence. The
Slackers have released 13 studio albums over
its more than 20-year career and recently
recorded a six-song EP, My Bed Is a Boat,
which will be available in a month on wax or
as a collectible CD with handcrafted cases.
1417 R Street, www.theslackers.com.

—Steph Rodriguez

Discovery Park, 11 a.m., $59-$219

Just in case it isn’t clear, this isn’t that
Britney, it’s the Other Brittany. And the
Other Brittany couldn’t have less in common with the more famous Britney, as in
Britney Spears. For starters, Sacramento’s
the Other Brittany isn’t a person, but a
band. Sure, the lead singer of the band
is named Brittany (last name McKinney),
but she’s only one piece of the puzzle. The
ROCK remaining members of the quartet create an eclectic blend of
alt-rock, folk and soul, with a deep, heavy
groove. The Other Brittany brings the
passion and honesty of a coffee-shop folk
singer to the music, but with the intensity
of a full rock band. 1400 E Street,
www.theotherbrittany.com.

Just go ahead and plan to be sick on
Monday, because after the Aftershock
ROCK 2013 festival, you won’t be fit to
work. P.O.D. still brings it like
nobody’s business; Skillet gives you plenty
of reasons to bang your head; Shinedown
and Korn will sonically pummel you to
death if the guys in the pit don’t do that to
you first; and then there’s one of metal’s
“big four”: Megadeth. Local rock heroes
and one of the last remaining bands from
the rock-metal hybrid invasion of the late
1990s, Papa Roach (pictured), will also be
appearing, as will rock stalwarts Avenged
Sevenfold and up-and-comers Halestorm
and Five Finger Death Punch. 1600 Garden
Highway, www.aftershockconcert.com.

MARRS building, 4 p.m., no cover
Summer isn’t officially over until September
21, but once Labor Day has passed, the
weeks in between start to feel like some
sort of pleasant-yet-melancholy limbo. The
remnants of the season should be sopped
up with gusto (if not a little desperation),
and the final This block party of its inaugural
series promises to be an excellent place in
which to do so. It’s headlined by Los Angelesbased electronica duo Classixx, which will be
joined by Midi Matilda and the Frail. The concert series has gotten better each month,
ELECTRONICA and with the highly
danceable Classixx
topping it all off, a raucous celebration of
the summer’s end is all but inevitable.
1050 20th Street, http://classixx.la.

Harris Center for the Arts, 7 p.m., $20-$25
While jazz is often considered an American
musical form, it has also borrowed heavily
from the rhythms of other cultures. So, a
melding of American jazz and North Indian
sounds should not be a surprise. Pandit Binay
Pathak is a composer, harmonium player and
JAZZ/WORLD singer known for his
ghazals, and he will
be joined by dayereh percussionist Abbos
Kosimov; George Brooks (pictured), saxophonist, composer and co-founder of Bombay Jazz
and other Indian fusion groups; and Matthew
Montfort, scalloped fretboard guitarist, recipient of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award.
10 College Drive in Folsom, www.sahana.org.

—Trina L. Drotar

Cache Creek Casino Resort, 6 p.m., $20

Reggae has evolved so much since the
1960s. But even in the early days, several subgenres emerged—dancehall, dub,
rocksteady—so what can be considered
authentic Jamaican reggae is actually quite
diverse. The local troupe the Scratch Outs
aim to create traditional reggae music in a
way that pays attention to all its forms. It’s
all in there: every variation on reggae that
emerged in or before the 1980s. The band
does reggae the way it used to be done, with
a full band—and that includes an organ,
horns and lots of group harREGGAE
monies. Its communal love
for the genre keeps it pure, even if they’re
not from Jamaica. 1400 Alhambra Boulevard,
www.facebook.com/thescratchouts.

In 2012, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet released
Lifetimes, a tribute to two of the members’
father, Dave Brubeck. This year, the quartet
will again honor the jazz master, whose list of
awards and recordings is extensive. Brubeck’s
JAZZ work also experimented with unusual
time signatures and rhythms,
because he believed that jazz should challenge listeners. This quartet—Daniel Brubeck
(drums), Chris Brubeck (bass and trombone),
and “honorary brothers” Mike DeMicco (guitar) and Chuck Lamb (piano)—has performed
Brubeck classics such as “Kathy’s Waltz,” “The
Duke” and “Take Five.” 10 College Parkway in
Folsom, http://brubeckbrothers.com.

—Jonathan Mendick

2708 J Street
Sacramento, CA
916.441.4693
www.harlows.com

BEFORE

Harris Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m., $12-$45

If you want to feel like you’ve been magically transported to a different country, head
over to Cache Creek Casino Resort to see
WORLD A Moving Sound. But good
luck guessing which country
you’ll end up in. The Taiwanese quintet,
led by couple Mia Hsieh and Scott Prairie,
blends Taiwanese, Chinese and Western
sounds. Yet, some songs—especially “Silk
Road” and “Ganesh”—draw from Indian
and Middle Eastern influences. After forming more than 10 years ago, releasing four
albums and touring the world, the group is
now undertaking a North American tour.
Expect cool costumes and interpretive
dance, too. 14455 Highway 16 in Brooks,
www.amovingsound.com/english.

Post your free online listing (up to 15
months early), and our editors will
consider your submission for the
printed calendar as well. Print listings
are also free, but subject to space
limitations. Online, you can include a
full description of your event, a photo,
and a link to your website. Go to
www.newsreview.com/calendar and
start posting events. Deadline for
print listings is 10 days prior to the
issue in which you wish the listing
to appear.

Want to be a hot show?
Mail photos to Calendar Editor,
SN&R, 1124 Del Paso Blvd.,
Sacramento, CA 95815
or email it to sactocalendar@
newsreview.com. Be sure to
include date, time, location and cost
of upcoming shows.

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Are you ready for
some football?
I read somewhere that marijuana helps with brain injuries. With
all the concussions in the NFL, when are professional
football players gonna be allowed to use weed?
—Jerry Nice
Right? It makes sense to me. But maybe the NFL
hasn’t paid any attention to the various studies showing that cannabis isn’t just an effective neuroprotectant, it also helps to grow healthy brain cells.
Perhaps it hasn’t read anything from Dr. Raphael
BEALUM
Mechoulam, the person who discovered the
by NGAIO
THC molecule. He co-authored a paper in 2002
(www.lycaeum.org/research/researchpdfs/
2002_mechoulam_1.pdf) showing how weed
a s k420 @ ne wsreview.c om protects the brain during injury. Or maybe it has
never heard of Dr. Xia Zhang from Saskatoon?
Zhang published a study in 2005 showing that weed
helped the hippocampus create new brain cells
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253627).
Check this quote from a study done at the University
of Washington looking for a drug to fight amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease): “Ideally, a
multidrug regimen, including glutamate antagonists, antioxidants, a centrally acting
anti-inflammatory agent,
I would encourage the microglial cell modulators
Marijuana Policy Project (including tumor necrosis
factor alpha [TNF-alpha]
to put up more billboards inhibitors), an antiapoptotic
extolling weed over booze, agent, 1 or more neurotrophic
like the one they erected growth factors, and a mitochondrial function-enhancing
at Sports Authority Field agent would be required to
at Mile High in Denver. comprehensively address the
known pathophysiology of
ALS. Remarkably, cannabis
appears to have activity in all of those areas. Preclinical
data indicate that cannabis has powerful antioxidative, antiinflammatory, and neuroprotective effects.”
That’s right. Cannabis does a lot of things. And it tastes
good. If I was in charge of the NFL and I had just settled a
lawsuit for almost $1 billion because of all of the concussions players receive, I would dang-near insist that players
smoke, eat or vaporize some weed after the game. I would
Ngaio Bealum
is a Sacramento
lobby the federal government to reclassify cannabis so it is
comedian, activist
no longer a Schedule I drug, and allow for more tests to be
and marijuana expert.
done about cannabis and brain injuries. I would personally
Email him questions
apologize to Ricky Williams for suspending him for cannaat ask420
@newsreview.com.
bis use back in the day. I would encourage the Marijuana
Policy Project to put up more billboards extolling weed
over booze, like the one erected at Sports Authority Field
at Mile High in Denver. And I would allow weed sales and
discourage booze sales in stadiums. But that’s just me.
Hello. I am new to this whole smoking pot thing. Can you
give me any tips on etiquette?
—Nan the Newbie
No problem. The first rule: Be yourself. That’s true for all
things. Other than that, it’s pretty easy. If smoking a bowl,
don’t burn off the top layer of green; leave some green for
the people you are sharing with. Please don’t salivate all
over the joint or blunt, and try to bring some weed to share
when you can. Welcome to the tribe of cannabis.
Ω
BEFORE

|

NEWS

|

BEST

OF

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88

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SN&R | 09.12.13

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BEST

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ARTS&CULTURE

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AFTER

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09.12.13

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93

by TRina L. DRoTaR

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “A good story

should make you laugh, and a moment later
break your heart,” wrote Chuck Palahniuk
in his book Stranger Than Fiction. From
what I can tell, Aries, the sequence is the
reverse for you. In your story, the disruption has already happened. Next comes the
part where you laugh. It may be a sardonic
chuckle at first, as you become aware of
the illusions you had been under before
the jolt exposed them. Eventually, I expect
you will be giggling and gleeful, eternally
grateful for the tricky luck that freed you
to pursue a more complete version of your
fondest dream.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus

musician David Byrne was asked by an
interviewer to compose a seven-word
autobiography. In response, he came up
with 10 words: “unfinished, unprocessed,
uncertain, unknown, unadorned, underarms, underpants, unfrozen, unsettled,
unfussy.” The coming days would be an
excellent time for you to carry out similar
assignments. I’d love to see you express
the essential truth about yourself in bold
and playful ways. I will also be happy if
you make it clear that even though you’re
a work in progress, you have a succinct
understanding of what you need and who
you are becoming.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The French

word “sillage” means “wake,” like the trail
created behind a boat as it zips through
water. In the perfume industry, it refers
to the fragrance that remains in the
air after a person wearing perfume or
cologne passes by. For our purposes, we
will expand the definition to include any
influences and impressions left behind by
a powerful presence that has exited the
scene. In my astrological opinion, Gemini,
sillage is a key theme for you to monitor in
the coming days. Be alert for it. Study it. It
will be a source of information that helps
you make good decisions.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Cataglot-

tism” is a rarely used English word that
has the same meaning as French kissing—
engaging in liberal use of the tongue as you
make out. But I don’t recommend that you
incorporate such an inelegant, guttural
term into your vocabulary. Imagine yourself thinking, while in the midst of French
kissing, that what you’re doing is “cataglottism.” Your pleasure would probably be
diminished. This truth applies in a broader
sense, too. The language you use to frame
your experience has a dramatic impact
on how it all unfolds. The coming week will
be an excellent time to experiment with
this principle. See if you can increase your
levels of joy and grace by describing what’s
happening to you with beautiful and positive words.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): This is Correct

Your First Impressions Week. It’s a perfect
time for you to re-evaluate any of your
beliefs that are based on mistaken facts
or superficial perceptions. Are you open
to the possibility that you might have
jumped to unwarranted conclusions? Are
you willing to question certainties that
hardened in you after just a brief exposure
to complicated processes? During Correct
Your First Impressions Week, humble
examination of your fixed prejudices is one
of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.
P.S. This is a good time to reconnect with
a person you have unjustly judged as
unworthy of you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): This is a good

time to free yourself from a curse that an
immature soul placed on you once upon
a time. I’m not talking about a literal spell
cast by a master of the dark arts. Rather,
I’m referring to an abusive accusation that
was heaped on you, perhaps inadvertently,
by a careless person whose own pain
made him or her stupid. As I evaluate the
astrological omens, I conclude that you
now have the power to dissolve this curse
all by yourself. You don’t need a wizard or
a witch to handle it for you. Follow your
intuition for clues on how to proceed.
Here’s a suggestion to stimulate your
imagination: Visualize the curse as a dark
purple rose. See yourself hurling it into a
vat of molten gold.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The current

chapter of your life story may not be quite
as epic as I think it is, so my advice may
sound melodramatic. Still, what I’m going

94

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PHOTO BY JENNIFER EGER

by Rob bRezsny

For the week of September 12, 2013

to tell you is something we all need to hear
from time to time. And I’m pretty sure this
is one of those moments for you. It comes
from writer Charles Bukowski: “nobody
can save you but / yourself. / you will be
put again and again / into nearly impossible
/ situations. / they will attempt again and
again / through subterfuge, guise, and /
force / to make you submit, quit and/or die
quietly / inside. / … but don’t, don’t, don’t. /
… nobody can save you but / yourself / and
you’re worth saving. / it’s a war not easily
won / but if anything is worth winning then
/ this is it.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The

cosmos hereby grants you poetic license
to be brazen in your craving for the
best and brightest experiences; to be
uninhibited in feeding your obsessions
and making them work for you; to be
shameless as you pursue exactly and
only what you really, really want more
than anything else. This is a limited-time
offer, although it may be extended if you
pounce eagerly and take full advantage.
For best results, suspend your pursuit of
trivial wishes, and purge yourself of your
bitchy complaints about life.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

At the last minute, Elsa Oliver impulsively
canceled her vacation to New York. She
had a hunch that something exciting would
happen if instead, she stayed at her home
in England. A few hours later, she got a
message inviting her to be a contestant
on the U.K. television show Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire? In the days and weeks
that followed, she won the equivalent of
approximately $100,000. I’m not predicting
anything quite as dramatic for you, Sagittarius. But I do suspect that good luck is
lurking in unexpected places, and to gather
it in, you may have to trust your intuition,
stay alert for late-breaking shifts in fate
and be willing to alter your plans.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “The

only thing standing between you and your
goal,” writes American author Jordan
Belfort, “is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
I don’t entirely agree with that idea. There
may be other obstacles over which you
have little control. But the bullshit story
is often more than half the problem. So,
that’s the bad news, Capricorn. The good
news is that right now is a magic moment
in your destiny when you have more power
than usual to free yourself of your own
personal bullshit story.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Is the

truth a clear, bright, shiny treasure, like
a big diamond glittering in the sunlight?
Does it have an objective existence that’s
independent of our feelings about it? Or is
the truth a fuzzy, convoluted thing that
resembles a stream of smoke snaking
through an underground cavern? Does it
have a different meaning for every mind
that seeks to grasp it? The answer, of
course, is both. Sometimes the truth is
a glittering diamond, and at other times,
it’s a stream of smoke. But for you right
now, Aquarius, the truth is the latter. You
must have a high tolerance for ambiguity
as you cultivate your relationship with
it. It’s more likely to reveal its secrets if
you maintain a flexible and cagey frame
of mind.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): It’s a good

time to indulge in wide-open, high-flying,
anything-goes fantasies about love—if,
that is—if you also do something practical
to help those fantasies come true. So, I
encourage you to dream about revolutionizing your relationship with romance
and intimacy—as long as you also make
specific adjustments in your own attitudes
and behavior that will make the revolution more likely. Two more tips: 1. Free
yourself from dogmatic beliefs you might
have about love’s possibilities. 2. Work to
increase your capacity for lusty trust and
trusty lust.

You can call Rob Brezsny for your Expanded
Weekly Horoscope: (900) 950-7700. $1.99
per minute. Must be 18+. Touchtone phone
required. Customer service (612) 373-9785.
And don’t forget to check out Rob’s website at
www.realastrology.com.

09.12.13

The outsider’s story
At American River College, Michael
Spurgeon works as a respected English
professor. He also sits on the board of
the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation, helped found the local youth
literacy program 916 Ink, and believes
that “every college graduate should
be issued a passport and strongly
encouraged to live abroad.” In 1993, a
younger Spurgeon quit his “well-paying
but miserable” job in San Francisco
and headed to Mexico with a childhood
friend to become a writer—because
Mexico was closer than Chile. The pair
landed in San Cristóbal de las Casas in
the state of Chiapas, where Spurgeon
would soon have a front-row seat to
the Zapatista Army of National Liberation’s uprising, led by Subcomandante
Marcos in protest of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now that
event has found its way into his debut
novel, Let the Water Hold Me Down (Ad
Lumen Press, $17). Spurgeon talked to
SN&R about that story, the Zapatistas’
legacy and the importance of empowering kids to tell their own histories.

Where were you when
the uprising began?
When the actual war started across the
street from my house, I was back in the
States for the Christmas holiday. Then, on
January 1, [1994], I was at a friend’s house
watching a bowl game, and my mom called
and said to switch to CNN, “There’s something going on in that town you live in.” I saw
an image of the town and of the apartment
I lived in.

What do you think
led to the Zapatistas’
actions?
Chiapas has the largest number of natural
resources in the country and the most

poverty. Mexico has a complicated relationship with its indigenous population. There is a
long history of racism toward, and colonization of, the indigenous people in Mexico. The
reforms promised by the Mexican revolution
never really took hold in Chiapas. That’s
really what the Zapatistas were fighting
against. The other thing that they were
fighting against was NAFTA, [which] sounded
a death knell for the indigenous people and
their way of life.

Were the Zapatistas
correct in their belief
that NAFTA would
adversely affect the
indigenous population?
Globalization and free trade are complex
issues. Certainly the Zapatistas were
correct that NAFTA would adversely affect
the indigenous in the short term. The long
term is harder to determine. In general, I
think the Zapatistas were correct in seeing
NAFTA as being about commerce at the
expense of people.

How do you, an
outsider, tell this story?
I wanted to tell this story of what happened
in Mexico, and it had to be in first person,
and it had to be [told from the perspective
of a] gringo. I didn’t feel that I had the right to
write it in any other voice. I felt that writing
something about class struggle in Mexico,
since I was outside of that, the narrator had
to be outside of that. I didn’t want to take
anything away from the people who were in
the struggle.

and so, I would say that I give part of our
love story to the central character, but
everything else is invented. I am certainly
not the central character.

Would you have
preferred to have
gone to Chile?
In hindsight, definitely not. My whole adult
life was shaped by that trip. At the time, it
wouldn’t have mattered, as I knew little about
both countries.

What motivated you
to write Let the Water
Hold Me Down?
[Marcos’] revolutionary address was given
across from my apartment. I felt stuck in the
middle of somebody else’s war, yet I appreciated the causes the Zapatistas were fighting
for: land, medical assistance, education. That
event, the leader, caused me to realize that
as individuals we have a moral obligation to
try and make things better for other people.
[That idea] was central to my motivation for
writing the book.

How have you put
that idea in motion?
One example is I’m co-founder and board
trustee of 916 Ink.

Why 916 Ink?

What part of the book
is your experience?

Literacy is a big deal. ... Over 70 percent of
inmates in America’s prisons can’t read at
a fourth-grade level. We say we’re turning
children into published authors, but I believe
that by empowering kids to tell their own
stories, they will become interested in reading. ... There’s no such thing as a writer who
isn’t also a reader.
Ω

I did get hired as a bouncer and subsequently as a bartender. The city is the city.
I tried to really create the atmosphere and
the time of that place. I met my wife there,

For more information on Michael Spurgeon,
visit www.michaelspurgeon.com.